Something special is happening at Hearts - Ian Murray
It’s always the hope that kills you. As an avid Hearts supporter I’ve always dreamed of the day when we could be challenging for the league championship.
Yes, in my 40-odd years of Tynecastle attendance we’ve experienced some Scottish Cup wins and marvellous European successes, but the league is always the big one.
When Tony Bloom came in last summer and invested his cash and his analytical tool into the club everyone sniggered when he said he wanted Hearts to be a disrupter and challenge for the league on a regular basis.
We dared to dream as he had achieved exactly that with his involvement in the Belgian side, Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, who won their first league title in 92 years last year.
With a new manager in Derek McInnes, some astute player recruitment and a sense around Tynecastle that something special was happening, who could have not dared to allow themselves to dream?
In the latter half of the season I kicked every ball, paced the floors when I wasn’t at the games, paced the floors when other teams were playing, and couldn’t sleep a wink at night going over all the permutations and connotations of the league games left.
It ultimately wasn’t to be on the last day but I do believe the footballing gods (or the VAR gods maybe) just didn’t align this year with the final week of the footballing season being steeped in controversy and “what ifs”.
The last few minutes of the season in particular throwing up all sorts of legal procedural and rules controversy. Who knows where that all ends?
But the big “what if” for me is much deeper. What would have happened just over a decade ago if the fans hadn’t saved their club and gave it the opportunity to win trophies again?
Well, it would have become a footnote in Scottish footballing history like Third Lanark. For the club to have been top of the league when the Foundation of Hearts announced that the fans had invested over £20m in Hearts was remarkable and a fitting tribute to everyone who dug deep both financially and emotionally in the darkest hours.
Hearts are the largest fan owned club in the UK.
What an incredible rollercoaster of a season we’ve had and everyone from the boardroom to the players to the fans have enjoyed it together. It’s been the most remarkable journey.
Who knows where the rollercoaster goes next but what is certain is that Hearts are back and have a bright future ahead. And for us Jambos we always say, at the end of most seasons “there’s always next year”.
Thank you to everyone at the club for the memories this season.