Gary Mackay: High time for Laszlo to shoulder responsibility

Published on Monday 23 November 2009 08:39

I HAVE to admit I am beginning to concern myself with the stewardship of the football club at the very top. It's becoming a real issue. I think all the Hearts supporters are now questioning themselves over where the real problems at the club lie.

People are always coming up to me and saying 'ah, it's your fault because you and Save Our Hearts helped bring Vladimir Romanov in' so it is a difficult one for me. As a group of supporters, I think we have to try and take a step back and work out whether the problems lie with the manager or with the owner, but at first glance it's hard to come to an obvious conclusion.

People are asking if the manager is trying to work his way out of the club. But the other question to be asked is whether Mr Romanov is trying to work his way out of the football club. What is Csaba Laszlo wanting as his end game, but more importantly what is Mr Romanov's end game?

As far as the manager is concerned I think he needs to take his share of the responsibility for the bad start we've made. It seems to be something with life in general where we all rush to apportion blame, but sometimes you have to look at your own house first and see what more can be done. I don't think the lack of backing Csaba's received from the board has helped him at all, but by the same token the lack of financial backing Jim Gannon has had at Motherwell doesn't seem to have done him any harm.

I never had this situation as a player so I can't be certain, but I don't think the manager coming out and saying he fancies this job or that job can be doing any good for the players. I'm not sure I'd have wanted to hear stuff like that from my manager when I was a Hearts player. Ambition is important, but I don't think Csaba should be coming out with this stuff every other week. It must be having a disheartening effect on the players.

This is where I think the manager needs to temper his frustrations and focus on getting results. The only way he'll get his move to bigger and better things is with performances and results. He's being disrespectful to his present employers. He maybe feels he's been disrespected by the club in that he got Hearts into Europe last season and hasn't been given the finances to go out and strengthen but at the end of the day he's got a contract with this club, so he should respect that. He's got a chance to enhance his CV by knuckling down and working harder and harder on the training pitch and trying to get more out of a Hearts squad that I don't think is anywhere near as bad as people are trying to make us believe.

Suso and Andrew Driver are a miss at present because we lack creativity in the midfield but I still think this squad is more than capable of beating St Johnstone at home.

No disrespect to Kevin Rutkiewicz or Stuart McCaffrey, but if Hearts had sent someone to watch Saints, surely they would have realised that they should play an orthodox 4-4-2 with two strikers right up against their centre-backs. Derek McInnes has done a fantastic job there and they carry an obvious goal threat, but if you look at their goals-against record, I think we should have been looking to go out there and try to bury them. The fact we didn't approach it like that is a real disappointment for me.

Even at 1-0, we could maybe have put Gary Glen right up beside Christian Nade to try and kill the game off. In the first half, we were playing quite well and looked to be in control, so how do we suddenly find ourselves up against it in the second half at home to St Johnstone? It's difficult to work out.

Regardless of what's happening at the club, the one thing I feel most strongly about is that Hearts supporters are not short-changed. Yes, they get annoyed and frustrated at times, but they're a loyal, loyal group and I think that was highlighted by the fact nearly 14,000 turned out at a time when things aren't going particularly well. I think everyone's just looking for a response from the club in general.

Heart and souls of our club

ON a more positive note, Hearts had their third Hall of Fame evening at the Corn Exchange a week past Friday. The first two in 2006 and 2007 were great nights, but this one was even better. There was a huge contribution from Tam Cowan and some really humbling words from Alfie Conn Junior, Henry Smith, Jim Jefferies and Donald Ford as they received their respective awards. As one guy said at the end of it: "Long live Heart of Midlothian."

I think that's something that, even in these difficult times, we as Hearts supporters must always remember.