The ball is now at Mercer's feet

James Traynor

4 May 1993

SPORTS OPINION

MORE than ever Hearts need leadership from within the boardroom, but the man who rescued them once, Wallace Mercer, chooses to be in the south of France.

Word has it the chairman is on holiday.

He has been away for five weeks and one of his directors said yesterday he didn't know when the flamboyant Mercer would be back.

Of course, it was pointed out that Mercer has been in touch with his club daily, sometimes three times a day, but it is most unlike the chairman to retreat from the limelight at a time like this and his absence fuels speculation the club's problems might be worse than anyone on the outside can imagine.

Yesterday, two days after a 6-0 defeat by Falkirk, the manager, Joe Jordan, was told to leave even though his contract does not end until September.

This is not a club in the best of health.

They require around £5m to refurbish Tynecastle and will be required to come up with £2m of that on their own before the rest can be obtained from grants.

They couldn't find the money Jordan wanted to buy a player and it should not surprise his successor if rising star Alan McLaren has to be sold to raise cash.

Mercer, who produced a miracle once when he transformed Hearts from a lost cause into a team capable of competing for honours, has seen his role in the business community diminish, and is finding it increasingly difficult to keep his club at the top.

Perhaps it would have been different if Hearts had not been denied the league title in season '85-86, when they lost out on goal difference to Celtic on the last day of the season.

Profound damage was done to this club's soul that day and they probably never fully recovered.

Now, they are in crisis again.

The supporters are long suffering and they are entitled to wonder what is happening.

They may be entitled to believe it is time for more than a managerial change.

They are entitled to see and hear their chairman speaking from Edinburgh and not from the Continent and he should not offer them platitudes.

These people are entitled to be told the truth, no matter how painful it may be.

Perhaps inevitably, it was being suggested in various quarters yesterday that Graeme Souness, whose job as manager of Liverpool appears under severe threat, might be heading back to his roots in Edinburgh, and some kind of position within Tynecastle.

Souness, of course, has a flair for the dramatic and the thought of using his own wealth to buy a stake in Hearts might just cross his mind.

Hearts need the money and times are so hard anyone's will do.

Taken from the Herald