The chant went up as the game entered stoppage time. ‘One Robbie Neilson.’ It hadn’t been heard in these parts for more than a year. It wasn’t a call to stay. It wasn’t even a rousing send off, that was the performance. It was acknowledgement of a job well done. For many the time to part ways was now, including Neilson himself.
The scorer of a winning goal in Basel. That tackle. A converted penalty in the Scottish Cup final shoot-out win. More than 200 first-team appearances. A Championship winning manager. European qualification at first attempt. Second in the league. Rangers had just been felled 2-0. Yet, he drifted away with a sober, patronising even, thanks.
A strange separation. One that should be unfathomable. One that can be difficult to understand. One that may come to be regretted.
Once again Heart of Midlothian were trailing away from home. Like the sky is blue, grass is green and BBC Sportsound having someone anger-inducingly awful on the panel, the Gorgie side were putting in an insipid and disjointed performance away from the comforts of Tynecastle. It has been that way for a number of years. Quintessentially Hearts.
The ball bounced out of touch, near the away dugout at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium. Robbie Neilson scampered from his technical area to get it. From those present during the horribly inept midweek defeat to Kilmarnock. Those present at the omni-shambles that was Birkirkara. And those present at many matches since Hibernian knocked the team out of the Scottish Cup on their way to exiting a 114-year hoodoo, what was to follow came as no surprise. Boos greeted the 36-year-old.
The nonsensical stunt back in March, when a plane flew over Tynecastle questioning Neilson’s style and bottle, was criticised with the majority in the stadium backing Neilson. Fast-forward a few months and a repeat of the stunt was being mentioned by numerous fans. Increasingly it had moved from a comment tinged with sarcasm to one of seriousness.
This was a relationship heading for divorce, maybe not in the short-term but in the foreseeable future. On the one side were an ever-increasing disgruntled element of the Hearts support, with indifference towards their manager gradually morphing into restlessness. On the other was the phlegmatic Neilson.
We can discuss the merits of moving from Heart of Midlothian to Milton Keynes Dons until we are blue in the face. Is it a forward step? Are they a bigger club? Will he be given more freedom? More money? League One? Milton Keynes? Pete Winkleman? A chairman who sounds like a character from Jessica Rabbit? Darren Potter and Kieran Agard? Milton Keynes? Roundabouts? The bassist from Bloc Party? Concrete Cows? Dons? Winkleman?
But it is understandable that Neilson felt the time was now. That he was under-appreciated. That he could do no good in the eyes of some. Since the very first match of the season, when the team were booed off having defeated Estonians FC Infonet in the Europea League, the team have been one bad performance, one bad result, away from stinging criticism and a tense atmosphere. The latter ‘team’ in that sentence may as well be replaced with ‘Neilson’.
Outsiders, along with a hushed portion of Hearts fan, found the incessant negativity towards, and criticism of, Neilson baffling. At the first attempt, the ex-player returned the club to the Premiership, winning arguably the hardest Championship time in living memory at a canter – 21 points ahead of Hibs.
Not only that but it was done with a style, with panache. There were times during that season where home fans were enchanted by some of the best football they had witnessed at Tynecastle. Both Rangers and Hibs were defeated in a 20 game unbeaten spell in the league. There were special moments which will live long in the memory; from Osman Sow’s injury-time winner at Ibrox to Alim Ozturk’s bodacious equaliser at Easter Road, to hitting Cowdenbeath for 10 [TEN].
Despite playing outwith the top-tier for the first time since 1983 the atmosphere around the club, the feeling, the quality was incomparable to the previous seasons, when the club meandered compliantly into administration.
The appointment of Neilson to replace ‘proper Hearts man and chest-thumper’ Gary Locke was vindicated after Ann Budge and the new regime were accused of lacking sentimentality and not giving Locke a chance under different circumstances.
That promotion season saw a connection develop between team and fans, while there was a great camaraderie between the players. Allied with the Foundation of Hearts the club were going from strength to strength as one. Yet, while the bond between club and fans has never been stronger, the connection between fans and team has eroded over the last 12 months. There has been a disconnect, and it was only widening.
Off the field the club has recently recorded positive financial figures, while work has begun on the new Main Stand. On it the club are also succeeding. Third-place in the first season back and competitive in the race for second-place this season. But why are fans so unhappy with their lot, Neilson in particular?
The change of tact last season, adding more physicality to the team was seen as Neilson cowing to director of football Craig Levein and the style of play seen during his stewardship in a successful spell, albeit one which is still stung by the notion of attritional football.
However, the jump in division meant the team needed more pace and power. It was a natural progression. But the exciting, expansive football from back to front, on the ground, and at pace, gave way to a more direct and one-dimensional ethos. Fans, however obdurate, can forgive such developments, especially if it means European qualification.
Hearts fans, however, are much less forgiving when it comes to derby defeats. Especially those that take place in the Scottish Cup. Especially when the team has a 2-0 first-half lead at Tynecastle. The replay at Easter Road was one of the most abhorrent during Neilson’s tenure. A derby defeat is a personal affront to Hearts fans; akin to someone turning up to a loved one’s funeral to boo as you try to grieve.
As witnessed by a pre-match interview by STV, it was as if Neilson himself managed Hibs to cup victory. It was Neilson who took the corner. Neilson who headed it past Wes Foderingham. Neilson who stormed the pitch. Neilson who threatened the Rangers players. Neilson who strolled down Easter Road with the cup. Neilson who brought the Loch Inn to a standstill with a rendition of Sunshine on Leith.
From February onwards Hearts became more functional. A backwards step some may say, but the loss of Osman Sow was significant. The Jambos weren’t a one-man team by any stretch but the lanky Swede gave the team another dimension. The remainder of the season was one to be endured rather than enjoyed, but third place and a return to European competition was achieved.
With the quality of Arnaud Djoum and Perry Kitchen added during the season there was a good foundation for further progression. They were standard-bearers in terms of quality of players coming in. Recruitment had been a strong point of Neilson’s tenure, albeit it was a collective effort.
The club had sourced players who were required for each step of the recovery. Experience of Scottish football was evident in the signings of Morgaro Gomis, Prince Buaben and James Keatings, with the added exoticism of Miguel Pallardo, Alim Ozturk and Sow. The jump to the Premiership saw the addition of the more physical and mobile Juwon Oshaniwa, Gavin Reilly, Juanma, Blazej Augustyn, Igor Rossi and Djoum. Plus Kitchen and the precocious John Souttar.
It was more hit and miss than the first year’s recruitment drive, but there was no question that quality had been added. Players who fans could respond to. There was hope for the third summer window, but that hope soon dissolved.
European qualification had been all but wrapped up with three months of the season remaining and the club talked about plans being in place for summer’s recruitment drive. What transpired hinted at very little preparation. The club started with no left-footers in the team as they defeated FC Infonet in a visibly frustrating night.
The problematic left-back position was filled with a right-footer and Conor Sammon was recruited on a three-year-deal, written off after barely three weeks. The team lacked balance, and a release of energy which new players can bring.
Hearts were out of Europe by the time Tony Watt and Bjorn Johnsen were ready. Such has been the tinkering and disruptive nature of a number of disjointed performances and the Europa League hangover – mentally rather than physically – that Neilson had one foot out the door by the time he had found the club’s best, most balanced and structured starting XI was found.
It was the Birkirkara debacle which set in stone a lot of Hearts fans’ feelings towards Neilson. The two ties showed a fraying support. In Malta, it should have been a time for enjoyment in the sun. Yet, there was an undercurrent that something wasn’t right. That exploded at the full-time whistle in the second-leg. Grown men were punching walls, kicking chairs and shouting bloody murder at Neilson and even Budge. Plots were being discarded with reckless abandonment all around the stadium, faces contorted with rage.
Neilson’s critics had a platform which only grew and increased in volume. Anything and everything was being used against him. His comments in the media, either seen as tepid or straight-up lies; the handling of the goalkeeper situation following Matt Gilks’s decision to go to Rangers; and more. His face simply did not fit. He was accused of not ‘getting it’. Among an intransigence element there was no way back for him, no matter what he did.
So when he is being booed and barracked; under-appreciated and treated with disdain, is it any surprise that he feels that it is the time to move on? Despite the win-ratio of 58 per cent (to quote Tim Sherwood, it is ‘second to none’). Despite the fact he was only 36, two and a half years into his first management role. Despite the fact he had improved young players into more consistent performers. Despite the progressive changes to professionalism, attitude and approach to conditioning he brought in.
The reasons for criticism are understandable, but the fervent craving for his removal is inscrutable.
‘We should be beating Hamilton! We should be beating Kilmarnock! We should be beating Inverness!’
Yes, Hearts should. But football isn’t as simple as that. It doesn’t work like that. Celtic are doing that. But a substantial gulf is there. Since February realism has been forsaken. There is an immediacy, a greed, and then for some it is personal.
One hundred and six matches. Sixty two wins. A Championship trophy. European football. Rangers, Hibs, Aberdeen all defeated. Two hundred and twelve goals.
An internecine feud has signalled the journey end. A journey with miles left to be travelled.
As Neilson south many have their wish, but . . .
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone.
Written by Joel Sked