Robinson and Dean set for a stormy time

KEN GALLACHER

13 Nov 1995

Hearts 2, Kilmarnock 1

FORMER Hearts chairman Wallace Mercer is back in Edinburgh just in time for what promises to be a stormy annual meeting of the club he sold last season.

The Hearts shareholders will meet at Ingliston on Thursday, when the joint-owners, chairman Chris Robinson and his right-hand man Leslie Deans, will be under fire because of the club's perilous financial situation.

One group of shareholders claim the debt is close to £6m, though Robinson recently told me that the current regime had plans to restructure the club's debt and thus stave off any immediate threat to the club's future.

One group of dissidents, led by Edinburgh doctor Gavin Kennedy, wants to know what provisions the directors have made to cover compensation claims against them from ex-manager Tommy McLean, sacked in the summer, and from Falkirk over the poaching of manager Jim Jefferies.

But while the dissidents may make a lot of noise there seems no-one out there with the money to buy out the current owners and then bail out the club.

As one shareholder said to me at the weekend: "The one thing we all know about Chris Robinson is that he inherited a great deal of the debt, and that could not disappear overnight.

"But he is a Hearts' man and that will count for a great deal at the annual meeting."

At Tynecastle on Saturday, Hearts proved that a week is a long time in football, never mind politics.

After having brought in French keeper Gilles Rousset, Italian defender Pasquale Bruno, and Swedish front man Hans Eskilsson, manager Jim Jefferies has guided his team from bottom place to fifth in the space of seven days.

But while the spotlight remained on the imports, it took veteran striker John Robertson to shift the emphasis towards 20-year-old defender Gary Locke, who was named captain at the start of the three-game run which has transformed the side's premier-division position.

Robertson, who had an assist in Locke's important opening goal, and then helped himself to the second towards the end, admitted there had been a few gasps of disbelief in the dressing room when the manager made his decision public.

But the striker added: "It has been one of the manager's master strokes.

Gary has the respect of all the senior professionals at the club because of his ability and the way he feels for Hearts.

Honestly, that boy bleeds maroon, he really does.

"He reminds me of Alan McLaren, and he captained the team when he was still in his teens.

He has the same kind of mean determination to succeed that Alan always showed.

We were all surprised during the week when he was not named in the Scotland Under-21 side."

Locke believes, of course, that he will simply step back into the shadows once Dave McPherson returns from injury.

He is probably right, but his contribution has ensured a future in the first team which had seemed out of his reach last season, when he spent long spells out of the side.

He said: "It was marvellous to get the goal.

At half-time, John Robertson had spoken to me about how I was getting forward.

In the first half, I had been breaking down the wing and John suggested that I should try to come inside a little more.

"When I did that, he was there and I played a one-two with him and was able to force the ball over the line.

It was down to Robbo as much as me."

The goal was the important breakthrough for Hearts.

Both Jefferies and Kilmarnock manager Alex Totten agreed later that the first goal was always going to be vital.

Unfortunately, Killie's strike did not come until five minutes from time, when Colin McKee scored.

Totten commented, a mite bitterly: "We played as well as Hearts did today and it was the same during the week against Rangers, and yet we don't have a single point from these two games.

It is hard to take.

"We are not taking chances the way other teams are taking them against us.

That is why we have dropped back into the danger zone.

"Hearts have been able to wheel and deal in bringing in these new players, and they have helped them turn the corner.

That is what we need right now, but I cannot even go out and sign a free-transfer man.

"There are times in every season when you have a need to bring in fresh players -- not necessarily big-money signings.

I have not spent a single penny since last season and I won't be spending anything in the foreseeable future.

I just can't do it."

Jefferies has done what Totten would like to do and yesterday he was trying to extend the deals which brought Bruno and Eskilsson to Scotland.

The Hearts manager and chairman Robinson were holding talks with both men, and Robinson indicated that he may be able to announce a successful conclusion to the negotiations today.

Rousset has signed until the end of the season while the others, even on their present contracts, will be available for the derby game on Sunday.

Taken from the Herald