May/June 1999

June 29th 1999

Still no news on the Paul Ritchie saga .... but it looks like he's not going to Italy with the rest of the team, neither is big Slim but that doesn't mean that he isn't going to take the one year deal offered to him. He is said to be deciding this weekend. Apparently Hearts are still interested in Stephane Adam's brother-in-law - Fabien Leclerq ... I had heard he was going to a club down south but apparently JJ Is interested in him and wants to talk to him again.

A few people have received thier season tickets this morning so I'll be hoping mine is there when I get home. Murray has not renewed his so we are keeping with our modern marriage where I have the season ticket, heh heh. It was not really his choice as the guys he sits beside haven't renewed his and he would be left on his own (we don't go to the games together...). He will still go to the home games (he says) but I don't know if we will be able to part with £16 or whatever it is they charge to see Dundee and teams like that. Mind you, now that we live so near tynecastle I think he would be ashamed not to go to a game. He says he will probably end up going to more away games as there is always a better atmosphere, that's all-seater stadiums for you.

There is a new link added to Hearts official jewellers - I pass that shop every day going to and from work and their stuff is nice so it is worth a look.

June 25th 1999

Well, I have now seen the new Hearts strip for this season. It is better than last years with the go faster stripes - it is still not the really dark maroon though, it must cost too much to get that colour ...... there is a 'special millennium badge' on the centre of the strip and thin white lines down the strip on each side of the badge. The launch of the strip has been put back one week as the demand is so high that Hearts reckon they would sell out in 90 minutes of opening.

Pre-season training starts next Thursday and so far Paul Ritchie will be with the rest of them. I imagine he will be sold before the season starts though. I don't know if Jeffries would play him if he was still there but his departure was imminent ... it might be better to get used to not having him. I dunno ....

June 24th 1999

Fixture lists for next season are out ..... it's getting nearer!!

Looking quickly at it the highlights (for me) are obviously the hibs games - roll on the weekend of 14th August !!! The Motherwell away trip on December 27th is interesting as that is when we are next due to do our corporate day out at Fir Park so nice it is in between Christmas and New Year. I am hoping at least one of the pittodrie trips will be a Saturday and WON'T co-incide with our Christmas night out as it did last season. Other than that the last derby being the last game of the season will be interesting ...... especially if there is something at stake ! So, only 7 weeks until we play the vermin, can't wait.

June 18th 1999

Nothing much to say during this close season - this is from the Official Hearts web site:

Hearts have received a bid for Paul Ritchie from Rangers. The bid is £800,000 and will be discussed by the board
over the next few days. ......... A further bid has been received from an English First Division Club for a sum in excess of £1.5million and this is also being discussed.

- £800,000 bid from Rangers .... please ........ why don't they just buy Tynecastle up and be done with it !!!!!  Good to see that there may be a bit of a bidding war on now, if Ritchie has to leave then let it be worthwhile. I am going to the Hearts shop to spend my 500 Club vouchers (on my husbands birthday present) tomorrow. I was in last week and there is not really that much choice but it is good to see that the prices are a little bit more reasonable than they were previously. Ho hum, only a few weeks until the pre-season friendlies begin, Queens Park at Hampden on 16th July (I think), Fulham at home 21st July and Spurs at home 24th July. Then the season starts for real the week after that, amazing. Bring on the hibees.

Hibs have sold 2,100 season tickets so far compared to Hearts 9,500. Says it all really.

June 9th 1999

Arghhh - please, please don't let Ritchie go to the Huns, noooooo. Hopefully they will be interested and start a bidding war with other teams. I have the feeling that Ritchie would like to stay in Scotland (new wife and kid) BUT he has always said he would love to play in the Premiership. At least his Scotland career would be safe.  What a reversal of trends eh, it always used to be Hearts getting players from Rangers (albeit all their duds, McPherson excluded).

This time last year I would have been negotiating the tube in London on my way to Gay Paris ..... oh well. Couldn't go to the Czech Republic as we chose to move house instead but after the result on Saturday maybe it is just as well. That was an embarrassment and why Ritchie wasn't on from the start, well - only Craig Brown knows. Who'd be a Scottish Hearts fan eh ??

June 4th 1999

I see Hibs have brought out a video to celebrate winning the first division. What a laugh, I think I might buy it myself and bring it out at parties and stuff. Cringe material for the Hibs fans I think.

Paul Ritchie is still on track to stay at Tynecastle ... looks like other teams aren't getting into a bidding war over him ... I just hope we don't get a repeat of the David Weir scenario. Ideally Paul will stay at Tynecastle.

June 2nd 1999

Well, not updated this page for a while due to not being able to get on the server etc. We beat Aberdeen 5-2 on the last day of the season - excellent result. Great end to the season and looking forward to next season with glee. Lots of lessons will have been learned during this season, we will now be a more mature team.

I moved house last week (now live 2 minutes away from Tynecastle) and while I was packing I came across newspapers from February when we were really at our lowest, how it all changed in the last few months. The Dundee game was the turning point, it couldn't have got any worse I don't think.

All the issues have been resolved with Jeffries and Aberdeen, only really the Ritchie thing left. Whatever he does (please don't let it be sellic) I will always admire Ritchie and would hope to see him back at Tynecastle in the future. I remember after the '96 cup final (5-1 defeat from the Huns) and at night a few of us went up to the George Hotel, we had missed the players coming back but Leslie Deans came out and spoke to us anyway, he was excellent thanking us all for our support and explaining the commitment he had to making Hearts successful etc, then he asked if we wanted to see any of the players so he brought out Robbo and Ritchie. Ritchie was in tears and was apologising to us all for embarrassing us and stuff, he was genuinely upset and just came across as a genuine guy.

Have to have a laugh at Donald Findlay getting caught on film, the man is an arse. What I can't understand is Neil McCann was inches from him when he was singing, unbelievable.

So, the season ticket has been renewed and all that is really left to say is 'Bring on the Hibees !!!!'.

May 17th, 1999

Hearts - 4, Dundee United - 1

My oh my - how drunk was I on Saturday .... I was out with the people from the Hearts web site chat page and after the great display by Hearts we were all singing and drinking and having a great laugh. A few of us decided we had to do something at midnight to mark the first anniversary of winning the cup ...... so we did ... what a laugh, can't really say too much but there will be photos going about I am sure, lets just say we were done something quite near to the Gorgie area .........

So, a very strange season draws to a close, wish it was just beginning. I think that before Jeffries even thinks about adding to the squad he needs to get Ritchie and Cameron to sign extensions, throw all the money he can at them. There will be a clear out and Guerin is leaving so there will be money saved there - give the whole lot to Cameron and Ritchie, then look at trying to get new players. Hearts have now successfully moved on from McCann, Weir (and for what it is worth - Hamilton) but we don't HAVE to try to re-build after losing more players, lets start keeping players. I think Jeffries grew up as a manager this season as he has never really had to prove himself when a team is bad before (obviously when he first came to Hearts he made lots of changes), this season will probably do everyone good in the long run.

May 13th, 1999

The media are speculating again about JJ going to Sheepland. Personally I think he is much to sensible for that and he will realise that that would be a downward move but he is shrewd enough to realise that is another great opportunity to try and squeeze some more cash somehow (??) from the board. It's a great tactic and women use it all the time (I won't moan if you go out with your pals AGAIN if you buy me that dress/bag/perfume etc.).

Renew season ticket time again, couldn't have come at a better time just as I am about to move house and need all the money I can get, oh well, it has to be done. I couldn't give up my seat now, I've been in it from the start, and definitely see it as MY seat now and I imagine I will still be in it when I am old and grey .... no cheeky comments now !!! Last home game on Saturday, another emotional response to the players at the end I hope - and a few chants of 'Jeffries/Ritchie/Cameron must stay' wouldn't go a-miss either.

May 11th, 1999

Just had a thought that this time last year I was on an unbelievable high looking forward to the cup final. How quickly this last year has past, I was single ... Also, my mum-in-law was 50 on cup final day (i.e., I've no excuse for forgetting her present this Sunday !!) so if we can win another trophy before she is 86 then we are doing better than the last time !!

I was packing some boxes as I am moving house soon and I was using newspapers that I have been saving, some of them where from February and it was really doom and gloom stuff then for Hearts - favourites to go down and all that. Also there was a bit in one of the papers of Scotland being written off winning the 5 nations Championship and someone recommending it as a good outside bet - wish I had paid attention to that. I think this will be a short close season (albeit no trips to France for the World Cup this year) then looking forward to the first Hearts-Hibs game, hope it is at Easter Road, drinking in the Regent Buffet before it, muchos singing, cannae wait.

May 10th, 1999


Rangers - 0, Hearts - 0 Officially Safe at last !! Yahoo. I will even win some money out of this with all the bets I have with hibbies etc. (Although if Hearts had went down I was going to owe about £300 out !!). Murray's best man (a mad, mad hibbie) is trying to get me to accept a bet that if Hearts finish above Hibs next season he will walk along Gorgie Road, naked, with 'I am a sad loser' written on his back. If Hibs finish above Hearts then I have to stand at the top of Easter Road with my top off (he never mentioned underwear .....) for a minimum of 30 seconds. Now, I am not afraid to take on the bet as there is no way on this earth that Hibs will finish above Hearts - BUT - he has not paid me the one million pounds (£1,000,000.00) he owes me from our bet in 1997, when he said Hearts would not win a trophy before the year 2000. I will see...

No drunken escapades to report on this weekend as I am suffering from the flu and not drinking but I am sure I will make up for it on Saturday when there is a Caley Swally - Hearts internet chat page people meeting up for a drink or twelve.

To finish, it was good to see Neil McCann didn't manage to get into the game last night - Grant Murray had him in his pocket all night. I watched him lift the trophy then that was enough for me, I still hate the fact he went to Rangers, if it was another team I would be much happier with all the success he is having.

May 4th, 1999

Hearts - 2, Dunfermline - 0

Not the best game I have ever attended by a long way - but hey, we got the result we needed. It's not mathematically impossible yet but a strange sequence of events would have to occur now for us to go down. In a perverse way it was almost an anti-climax because we have played so well in recent weeks that the 'relegation-decider' wasn't the nervous affair it might have been. I am not complaining though. Last night I thought that Rousset, Cameron and Severin were all great last night. It was really funny right after the 2nd goal when we were all singing 'Bring on the hibees...'. Can't wait for derby games again.

Yesterday we went to the Gilsland Hotel in the afternoon, it was a gorgeous day so it was great having a few drinks (well, quite a lot of drinks) before the game. Someone was telling me that after the Motherwell game, Chick Young was commenting on Hearts fans singing 'Bring on the Hibees' and he said something like 'Bring on the Celtic, bring on the Rangers, Bring on Milan - in this form Hearts could beat any of them'. Quite funny.

I watched the sellic-rangers fiasco in a pub on the East side of town on Sunday night, there was trouble in there so imagine what it was like in Glasgow !! The whole affair was a disgrace to Scottish football and they should chuck them both out of Europe. Their scummy fans showed themselves for what they are, I think the guy who fell from t he top tier and was waving his arms about on the stretcher summed up the intelligence level of most of the sellic fans. Mixed feelings about seeing McCann doing so well, jealousy I suppose that he is not still with Hearts, I still wish so much that it wasn't Rangers he went to. Oh well, hopefully we'll finish off the league on a high then start looking to see what can be done to improve ourselves for next season. A massive clearout is expected (Jenkinson, Quitongo, etc).