The Battle for Hearts and Minds: Changing Fortunes at Heart of Midlothian FC

by Craig Watson (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2005

  $3.28

  The events of this season and next are likely to determine whether Heart of Midlothian Football Club, romantically formed by a group of dance-hall regulars, survives or dies. This sobering realisation has focused considerable attention on Hearts. Through their own buy-out bid and a series of mass protests, supporters have taken unprecedented steps to protect the existence of their club. And fans from other vulnerable clubs have cast an anxious eye towards developments at Tynecastle. The wider public have also been touched by the potential demise of a Scottish sporting institution. Every Hearts supporter is asking how, after a proud 130-year history, one of Scotland's major forces in the game has arrived at the football equivalent of the gallows. And every football fan should listen to the answer. There has been a handful of history books about Hearts - the team - but this is the first book about Hearts - the club. Other books have surveyed what has happened to Hearts - this one asks why it has happened. With a comprehensive analysis of past events, the book considers what has led Hearts to the position they find themselves in. Using an investigative approach - including interviews with past and present figures at the club, opponents of the current regime and other leading experts - Watson examines the events that have been directly responsible for taking the club to the brink. Amid public accusations of financial mismanagement and betrayal, he reveals some of the actions and incidents that the media failed to report. Will the pride o' the toun have to leave their spiritual home at Gorgie and move along the road to groundshare with the Scottish national rugby union team at Murrayfield? Or will millionaire Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov's cash injection allow the boys in maroon to stay at Tynecastle?