Pay cut or else warning to Hearts players
Hammill has accepted a 50% pay cut to help the club but the only other option was to be made redundant.
Hearts look on course to sell 3,000 season tickets to start the new season but it could be two or three months away from putting a CVA forward to creditors.
While they remain in administration a registration ban prevents the Edinburgh side from signing new players making the task of recovering from a 15 point deduction almost impossible.
After a decade of high spending reality is hitting home at Tynecastle with Hammill revealing the ‘options’ available to him.
“If we didn’t accept pay cuts then basically we were out the door so it’s been difficult for everyone involved with the club,” the former Kilmarnock defender explained. “We nearly lost our jobs.
“There were people at Tynecastle we’d usually have a conversation with in the morning and when I arrived they were no longer there so you sometimes have to count yourself lucky.
“When the administrator was appointed you think, ‘Am I going to be OK here?’ You hear 14 people are made redundant and you hope it doesn’t happen to you.
“I’ve managed to come through it and keep my job. The manager didn’t beg me to take a cut. He phoned and said he really wants me but the ball was in my court. He told me he wasn’t going to stand in my way of anything.
“That was great because he never forced the issue and it made my decision a little easier. It took me a while to get my head round being asked to take the cut. It wasn’t a decision I could just have taken off the cuff.
Hammill added: “Why did I do it? It was everything. You look at the fans and the fact we could’ve been days away from closure.
“It’s a big cut we’ve taken. Not everyone is earning £15,000 to £20,000 a week. But it is to help the club out. I am happy with my decision.
“There are no guarantees in this situation of being recompensed in the future. I have signed this deal and I still don’t know when we are going to get our next salary or wages.
“We are still due ‘X’ amount of money and things are no clearer on that front. We will speak to the administrators on Thursday and discuss these things and hopefully it will be OK.”
John Sutton has rejected the pay cut ‘offer’ and is expected to leave the club in the next few days.
Former Hearts assistant manager Peter Houston and defender Danny Wilson have put money into the club by paying for season tickets that will be given to charities to use.