First off, I want to change what I said about Zaliukas in the Falkirk game. I originally stated he did not deserve a red card. This was due to where I was sitting in the stand and it appeared that he was punching the ground, not the player. After seeing highlights, it is clear that Zaliukas deserved the red card and should probably be suspended by the club for his stupid conduct. He’s now picked up 3 red cards this season which is silly (the second red card was undeserved but we’ll ignore it to keep things simple). This does lead on to another complaint about the referee’s. The head of the Scottish referees praised Csaba for his public condemnation of Zaliukas action. Why is it we only hear about this guy when someone does something he approves of. I mean, if a referee has an absolutely stunning game (not something that happens in Scotland), he’d the first person to come out of the woodwork to praise him. But when there’s a “MacDonald” game like Hearts v Falkirk on the weekend, he’s no where to be found.

The issue with the refereeing problem is that the Managers (with the exception of the In-firm managers) are too scared to say anything because the SFA can destroy them for being too critical. No one will listen to the fan’s either because they will be thought to be biased and out to get the referee. The only person left to complain who will be heard is Vlad, and everyone thinks he’s nuts. So when the next set of fixtures roll around, there will be no outcry, no one demanding blood because everyone will have forgotten about it or be too bitter to say anything.  The last time anything was mentioned was when the in-firm managers complained at the same time and the SFA had to listen. Now that the referees are destroying the hopes of everyone outside of Glasgow, it doesn’t matter anymore. Lets hope they all get stuck in Spain on their “team-building exercise”. (more like holiday…)

What about the rest of the season? At the moment, I’m going to be opptomistic and say that this is little slump is just a blip on the radar. I see it in lots of other sports (it even happens in Football Manager…) and Hearts just need a good win to break out of it. Maybe a change in tactics might do it…? Maybe 2 up front…? This is the same argument over and over again. In fact, I hope Csaba does it just so I can have something else to talk about.

Something different here though. St. Mirren have asked that next weeks match be moved from Saturday to Sunday next week and Hearts have turned them down (rightly so). It would be a massive inconvenience for me if they did. It would also be a massive inconvenience for many Hearts fans who have bought tickets or match-day hospitality. Hearts have often been on the receiving end of the SFA and the Old Firms rubbish and after last weeks fiasco, I can actually see Hearts feeling a little bitter, and the Buddies were the perfect target for Hearts annoyance.

Anyway, it’s a big match against Aberdeen on Saturday, so make sure to come back for my analysis.

An Ill and Bitter Jambo

Apologies for not putting up an update since Monday. I’ve spent this time trying to put my frustration into words. So far all I’ve been able to come up with is a few mumbled expletives and some cursing. We head into the Scottish Cup 5th round without a striker or a replacement for Berra. According to the Scotsman, this was because of someone, (either in the higher ups at Tynecastle or in Slovakia) doesn’t know how to use a fax machine. In their defence, I wouldn’t know how to use a Fax machine as in the world of technology, it is officially “antiquated”. Why couldn’t they have sent the relevant paperwork by e-mail? I assume both clubs have a computer connected to the web, a printer and a scanner? It’s not really worth thinking about to be honest. All that we know is that Hearts and/or Slovakia made a hash of the Transfer proceedings and were stuck with what we’ve got.

Since the Transfer window slammed (with a disgustingly hollow clang) shut, the Scotsman hasn’t given a decent story about the JT’s all week. They seem adamant to repeat the same quotes and useless insight about Hearts failing to sign anyone and how this will be bad by the time May roles around. They were even forced to turn to a Hearts fan for some insight into tomorrows match against Falkirk, clearly the journalists have “better” things to do. However, I totally agree with his opinion about what Hearts need to be doing - an attacking mentality with a 4-4-2 formation and a positive attacking mentality. I couldn’t agree more with this analysis and I’ve been stressing the need for a 4-4-2 for months now.

Gary Glen is on the cover of the Souvenir Programme tomorrow. Could this be some sort of subliminal omen?

Not to toot my own horn, but I was right about Neilson becoming captain (yay me!). Despite having the slight ego boost of being right over a problem that had a pointlessly obvious solution, I’m still very disappointed that Berra left. It’ll probably be Jonsson replacing him in defence.

I’ll have a pre-match report ready for tommorow morning.

Well, Hearts haven’t done what was needed to be done. It’s been said time and time again in the past few months that Hearts need a scoring striker like we need oxygen to live. From what I can make out on the Hearts website, they didn’t do it. We now have less players than before the deadline and in desperate need of a striker. Hearts didn’t get a replacement for Berra, failing to nab the Artmedia defender that Csaba has spent the last few days praising.

I think the only good bit of news is that we have a very good keeper on the books now: Janos Balogh.

Here’s the list of players who have left Hearts that comes from the Hearts webpage: Christophe Berra, Anthony Basso, Audrius Ksanavicius, Juho Makela, Matej Rapnik, Dumitru Copil, Craig Sives, Ciaran Coll, Jordon Love, Shaun Kelly, Alistair Devine, and Sean Mackle. I believe that with the exception of Berra, all of these players were released or their period of loan ended. The website does state at the end of the article: “Robert Adam has joined Tynecastle Football Club”. Anybody know who or what this means? Is this back room staff? An under-19 player? A secret striker? who knows…it’s a riddle wrapped in an enigma.

So what does this all mean for the future? Well here’s a list:

1. The JT’s have no new striker, so Csaba will need to make a tactical rethink. Maybe Driver up front alongside Nade and maybe consider giving Gary Glen a start or two.

2. The JT’s have just lost a Captain. It will probably be Robbie Neislon, he’s been at Hearts longest and knows it best

3. The JT’s have had a £2.3 million influx of cash from Wolves. Will this be used to fund future Hearts programs? or just to balance the Ukio Bankas books? We must see…

For the rest of the season, we need a tactical rethink in order to start scoring goals. The Jambos also need to think about reinforcing the back four. Christophe Berra was instrumental in organising the defence and a replacement is needed. With no replacement grabbed during the Transfer period, Csaba will need to look within the club. With so many players leaving however, it should help alleviate any money problems.

Apparently, Vlad wants 70% 0f the Hearts squad to be home grown from the Academy, Scotland or Britain with a few foreign players to help. It sounds good on the surface, but it does sound like the cheapest option for Hearts and relies on every group of players coming out of the Academy to be fantastic. Although that’s been the case in recent years, it won’t last forever.

As a final thought. I’m a little dissapointed in Hearts for failing to sign either a Striker or a Defender. Scratch that…I’m VERY disappointed. Hearts fans have been saying this for the past few years and in recent weeks, Csaba and Vlad have made it clear that a Striker was required. The Hamilton - Hearts game was a perfect example.

P.S. Julien from the Scotsman Transfer Deadline Chat, your an Idiot. Although yes, Hearts do need Rudi Skacel back again.

…Not very good at all. Hearts were beaten (maybe routed ist the better word) 2-0 by little upstarts Hamilton who extend their terrific form. Hamilton were all over the JT’s for almost all of the 90 minutes knocking in two goals and making Hearts look generally silly.

If any blame is going  to put anywhere, I’d put on the defence (not that the rest of the team were really much better). First, although MacDonald is a good young goalie, he hasn’t had the regular experience that Balogh has had and it appears his experience was missed today. The back 4 will have had their issues as well. Only Neilson and Wallace have had any regular first team appearances with Zaluikas and Jonsson filling in the gaps when they appeared. Not having Berra probably hurt, and the new defensive set up will need some time to gel, but this should get better over time.

This match is probably another in a long list of arguments for changing the set up of the squad. The 4-5-1 formation allows for dominance of the midfield and quick movement of the ball up into the opposition’s area. However, we only have one experienced striker to feed the ball to and he has a tendency to hang back a bit while the whole team have a reluctance th shoot the ball. We need a new striker with two up front, possibly working with the classic 4-4-2.

Their is some minor consolation (if you like that sort of thing). Our two main contenders for the European spot both lost today: Rangers 2-o Dundee United, Falkirk 1-0 Aberdeen with Hibs only scraping a draw with Motherwell. S0, even though Hearts suffered a bad loss today, the table stays much the same as far as Hearts are concerned.

With it looking likely that the captain will be leaving for pastures new, down at Wolverhampton, Hearts are going to need to work extraordinarily hard in the next couple days to sign in a striker, and maybe a replacement for Berra. If Berra does go, Csaba apparently has someone in mind: “I have one player, a very talented player, who is an international with his country, played Champions League and UEFA Cup and is 23 years old”

Maybe we could somehow label Vlad with the blame, as he decided to show his face at the match after arriving in Edinburgh for transfer talks. Maybe he jinxed it? You decide.

The next match is in a week against Falkirk in the 5th Round of the Scottish Cup at Tynecastle. Lets hope Csaba and the gang can get it together for then.

Scorers: Mensing 11, pen 52

I was hoping that this wasn’t going to happen (can’t understand the specifics myself) but Hearts have accepted an offer of £2.3 million for the JT’s Captain Christophe Berra from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

I have two points I want to raise over this. 1st, why have Hearts accepted an offer £700,000 below the original price tag? Probably because the rumoured interest from Fulham and Sunderland was only just a rumour. It can also be discerned that Hearts (or at least Vlad Romanov) are desperate to get a decent money boost.

As such, Berra will not feature in Csaba’s squad in today’s match against Hamilton as he travelled down to Molineux this morning to watch Wolves v Watford.

Those of you who were up early enough to cath the preceding article on the Scotsman, you would know that Csaba Laszlo was apparently in the dark over Berra’s future and had tried to keep the captain at Tynecastle. This obviously means that Vlad has set his clout to stealth mode and working in the shadows in the past few months.

Now, a quick quiz. Raise your hand if you think Wolves are a bigger side than Hearts? No one? Ok, who thinks that the Championship is bigger than the SPL? Yes I know it’s “bigger” because it has more teams than the SPL but that’s not what I asked.

What this does mean is that we need a new Captain. Who’s the new skipper? My money’s on Robbie Nielson. He’s been around the longest at Tynecastle and know how things tick. Also, it will probably be Jason Thomson to take up Berra’s position in the back 4 although Csaba hinted that he had an excellent replacement in mind just in case. Whether or not he meant Thomson is another question…

Well, Goodbye Christophe Berra, you will be missed.