Black’s future may be in jeopardy after latest dismissal, says Nevin

Hearts have not appealed the decision. The 26-year-old, who was also shown a straight red card against Motherwell in August, will now miss his club’s next three games.

Black has been sent off three times and collected seventy yellow cards in the last six years with Inverness and Hearts and Nevin believes that his disciplinary record could put his Tynecastle career in jeopardy. “Hearts would be mad if they weren’t reviewing his situation,” said the TV and radio pundit. “They’ll do that with all their players but his record stands out.

“I was working at the Everton v Manchester United match on Saturday and listening to the radio on my way home. As soon as they said ‘there’s been a red card at Tynecastle’ I immediately thought ‘I bet it’s Ian Black.’

“With players like that you either need to put up with his behaviour because of the other things he brings to the team or you try and get him to adapt his game in the hope that he’s still effective. It’s called a cost-benefit analysis, whereby you work out whether the good things a player brings over-rides the negative stuff.

“Clubs will monitor midfielders who regularly get themselves suspended and every time they get sent off it makes it more difficult to make a case for them adding more to the team than they take away.

“Then there is the Joey Barton example. He’s a really decent player but at what cost? You know there are always going to be lapses with him where he gets sent off and gets intro trouble – and there are problems away from the pitch as well.

“Eventually, Newcastle decided he wasn’t worth the bother and allowed him to leave for nothing and join QPR, who were willing to take a chance on him.”

What really worries Nevin is Black’s physical approach. Shiels was lucky to avoid serious injury at the weekend.

“There’s no excuse for some of the challenges from him,” he said. “Everyone wants to see a fair, hard game but not someone who’s a danger to other players.

“Everyone in the game knows what the limits are in terms of foul play but, unfortunately, he seems to step over them more than anyone else.

“I’m not saying he should be sacked – as a former PFA Secretary, I’m not in favour of putting people out of the game – but clubs have a duty of care to other players as well as their own.

“As a winger I was more often than not on the receiving end of heavy challenges but I was never a whinger. I didn’t complain.

“Some of those hard tackles were legal, some weren’t and there were some that were deliberately damaging, although, fortunately, they were few and far between.”