The penny still hasn’t dropped at Hearts

The extent of the crisis at Hearts seems impossible for some football people to understand.

When a club finds itself facing administration it’s because of one simple fact- income isn’t meeting outgoings.

In that situation the club must do all it can to raise income and reduce spending with selling players the obvious answer with ALL footballing matters taking a back seat.

If Hearts are to survive they need to get their spending down to the levels of Kilmarnock and Motherwell regardless of claims to be the one of the biggest clubs in Scottish football.

Both of those clubs have lost players to Hearts in recent seasons but got on with the job of finding replacements from within their budgets and delivering relative success to their clubs.

A few weeks back Craig Levein claimed that the Romanov years had been justified by winning two Scottish Cups- perhaps his view may alter if the club is liquidated and forced to reinvent itself playing out of Meadowbank Stadium.

During the Romanov years Dundee United, Kilmarnock and St Mirren have all enjoyed trophy success- the liquidation of Rangers should have presented a well run Hearts with a golden opportunity to step up and provide the most realistic challenge to Celtic.

That opportunity has been lost- perhaps the biggest crime of the Romanov regime- but former manager Jim Jefferies can’t divorce footballing matters from ensuring the continued existence of the club.

Last week’s fire sale announcement hardly rocked the transfer market with only a couple of emerging players likely to attract offers stretching to six figures.

Jefferies has first hand experience of administration at Dunfermline but rather than looking to secure the future of his old club believes that striving for footballing success should be the priority at Tynecastle.

“Boys like (Jason)Holt, (Jamie) Walker and (Callum) Paterson have done really well for them and although the situation is bad, the club should be doing all it can to make sure these boys are allowed to stay and develop,” Jefferies claimed.

“They can be the future of the club and it would be a massive blow to (manager Gary) Lockey if they were to leave.

“They can help the club return to success on the pitch – get into the top six, get to cup finals and win trophies again – if they can stay and grow into the players we think they could become.

“But right now, it looks like some other clubs might benefit from all the work Hearts have done in bringing them through the ranks. If they are sold, Gary will have go down to the next batch of kids and they probably won’t be ready for the SPL.”

Jefferies admitted: “They’ve still to sell the players, of course. It is easy to say everybody’s up for sale but does anybody else in Scotland have the cash to buy them?

“I’m not sure too many of them will be able to go to England, because at this stage in their development they probably aren’t what clubs down there are looking for.

“These boys are a year or so away from reaching that level, so Hearts have to do all they can to keep them in the shop window.

“The idea has always been that Hearts are a great club in which to develop as footballers. If they then get a stage where they attract interest from other clubs, then Hearts get good money for them and that allows to the club to continue to grow.

“That’s how it should be done. Selling their best young players at the moment might be a short-term fix but I really hope they can hang onto them for the long-term benefit of Hearts.”

A short term fix is exactly what Hearts require. Starting the new season in the SPL without a points deduction would be one of the greatest results in their history.

The reality is that administration looks a certainty. With Tynecastle occupying prime housing land and it’s ownership uncertain it’s likely that the Gorgie side are heading for liquidation requiring the helping hand of former director Campbell Ogilvie to provide the newco with SFA membership for next season.