Leslie Deans: Hibs would show foresight and leadership if they back Ann Budge’s reconstruction plan

Former Hearts chairman calls for return to friendlier times when Edinburgh clubs helped each other

Should Hearts and Hibs be working together more closely.

Aidan Smith’s column in Scotland on Sunday last weekend, in which he reflected on a spell watching Hibs and Hearts on alternate weekends, triggered some memories.

Like Aidan, my experiences of Edinburgh football date back to when my father first took me, just as his father took him. Aidan went, he says, in the 1960s. I can date it back to the late 1950s when I went with my father, who was most annoyed that Hearts had sold Dave Mackay and Alex Young south of the border. I never had the pleasure of watching the Terrible Trio and these terrific two footballers.

Nonetheless I, like many others, loved my football. And in early life I lived in Iona street, which was a stone’s throw away from Easter Road. In fact, my mother’s uncles were, to a man, Hibs supporters. But my dad was always pulling me in one direction and one direction only and there was never any doubt which was going to be successful.

Former Hearts chairman Leslie Deans.

Aidan goes on to say that he sees Hearts as his second team. Whilst I would never claim the other Edinburgh club are my second team, after all I could not have my father turning in his grave, what I would say is my distaste was never reserved for our Edinburgh neighbours but instead for the two clubs at the other end of the M8.

Aidan expressed sympathy for a club expelled from an unfinished league and who now face next season in a league that conceivably may never get off the ground, potentially losing millions of pounds as a result.

If he looks back to a friendlier era and asks why it is different now, then he might care to reflect on things that have happened in the past.

In the early 1960s there was a derby where the score was 3-3. I was just a lad at the time but I vividly remember being at that game. Afterwards, my dad and my mother’s Hibs-supporting uncles all agreed that Hearts hadn’t exactly over exerted themselves that day because Hibs were desperate to avoid relegation and there was a suggestion – I put it no higher than that – that Hearts had not bust a gut to win.

If you move forward you might also reflect on another example. In 1990 when the late Wallace Mercer attempted to take over and close down their rivals a lot of Hearts people were very unhappy about that. We felt that despite being our rivals they had a right to live and it did not sit well with us to see them closed down.

I told Wallace face to face that I did not think it was a good idea. Other people told him the same thing. The rest is history. These are examples where off the field cooperation was greater. You then move forward to 2013.

By that stage the climate seems to be radically different. Hearts were in considerable trouble and the administrator Bryan Jackson was desperately trying to put a deal together with the Lithuanian creditors to sell the club to Ann Budge’s consortium and there was clear evidence, as confirmed by Mr Jackson, that some Hibs supporters tried to derail the whole process. Thankfully that never came to anything.

It is perhaps indicative of a change in climate but if there is any semblance of consideration left for each other we could have perhaps expected a clear statement recently from Hibs in favour of reconstruction. Nothing has been forthcoming, and nor do I expect it, despite the fact Scottish football risks alienating its third largest support at a time when the game needs every single penny it can get.

Despite that, Hearts will survive, be it in the Premiership, Championship or even in the English league - and they will prosper.

A number of things will contribute to that including the money that is pumped in every month by the magnificent efforts of the Foundation of Hearts, which was swollen by over 1000 new pledges this last week.

And on the question of finances I have gone on record recently to say that I am confident of success if Hearts are left with no alternative but to start civil court proceedings to remedy this scandalous decision that has been perpetrated against them.

Indeed, the latest revelation that there might not even be a Championship next season, or if there is one it could be a truncated campaign, in my opinion only adds to the chances of success as it is a further demonstration that the SPFL failed in their duty of care to member clubs.

It might also mean that Hearts’ loss is considerably greater than the £3m originally estimated by Ann Budge. I am sure if this were the case that would mean the claim in the Court of Session would be for a higher amount.

So where are we? By adopting the well-constructed plan given to all clubs by Ann Budge this week, there is an opportunity for Hibs and other leading clubs to take Scottish football out of the coronavirus darkness and into a new era, specifically with 14 top-flight clubs, with the financial underpinning that is given by the broadcast partners who will be delighted to see that such a league would give five derbies - Old Firm, New Firm, Edinburgh, Highlands and Lanarkshire - throughout the season.

Fans thrive on derbies the world over. It is giving people what they want. It is giving Sky, assuming a split of seven-seven, or six-eight, after 26 games, four Old Firm games a season, which is what they want. It is also giving the players of the SPFL, who voted by more than 80 per cent for reconstruction according to their chief executive Fraser Wishart, what they want. It is a way to pull the game together that is to the benefit of everybody.

Whilst I will not hold my breath, I will be the first to publicly applaud Hibernian if they show the foresight and leadership to help make this happen.

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