Anyone could be forgiven for thinking that Scottish football starts and stops with Glasgow giants Celtic and Rangers. The Old Firm certainly dominate the hearts and minds of the beautiful game’s fraternity north of the border, and for all it can be intriguing from time to time, sometimes it’s downright tedious .
Radio phone-ins, websites and the back pages demonstrate this perfectly. If Neil Lennon sneezes on the touchline, some Rangers fans jam the switchboards to proclaim the damning evidence that conclusively proves the Irishman is indeed the thug they’ve always known him to be.
And Celtic fans holler in protest when the Daily Record runs a 5-page interview with David Weir in which the Rangers captain exclusively reveals why beige has always been his favourite colour. However, we’ve had a bit of temporary respite recently, as the Edinburgh clubs have managed to hog the headlines - for a short while at least.
Hibs have appointed a new manager, with Irishman Pat Fenlon becoming the Easter Road club’s ninth manager in the last decade. You don’t have to be Carol Vorderman to work out that those stats make for pretty grim reading – it can be safely assumed that Hibs haven’t exactly had to splash out on long service awards recently.
Announcing Fenlon’s appointment last week, Hibees chairman Rod Petrie expressed his hope that the new manager would be in the hot seat for the “long haul”, and that a period of stability would be good for the team’s prospects. (Some might say that Petrie’s specialist subject, should he ever appear on Mastermind, would be the bleedin’ obvious).
In recent seasons, men who played for Hibs with distinction have singularly failed to achieve even a modicum of success whilst occupying the manager’s office. Legends such as Franck Sauzée, John Collins, Mixu Paatelainen and John Hughes were all appointed amid great fanfare, but couldn’t positively impact on Hibs’ fortunes where it really mattered – results on the pitch. They came, they saw, and, er, they went away again.
Meanwhile, across the city in down-town Gorgie, Hearts fans have had little to gloat over, given their own club’s current woes. As if the non-payment of players’ wages hasn’t been bad (and embarrassing) enough, owner Vladimir Romanov has confirmed his intention to sell the club, and that senior players will begin to be off-loaded during the forthcoming transfer window with a view to driving down costs.
Now, I will confess I’m unlikely to give Richard Branson and Alan Sugar too many sleepless nights on the business acumen front, but Romanov’s apparent desire to sell the Tynecastle outfit for £50m – that they’re estimated to be around £30m in debt is worthy of a mention here - is perhaps just a tad optimistic given the parlous state of finances in Scottish football at the moment. Last time I looked, there wasn’t exactly a queue of money-laden philanthropists eager to pour endless sums of cash into its coffers.
Still, hope springs eternal, and many Hearts fans might just be glad to be rid of Romanov, despite his initial investment and oft-stated desire to challenge the Old Firm’s long standing supremacy in Scottish football. Things have never been dull during the Lithuanian’s seven-year tenure to date at the helm, although the lingering fear that he would walk away at some point has become tiresome for many of the Gorgie faithful.
And there you have it, the Scottish football weekly news update with barely a mention of the Old Firm. But fear not, folks, I’m pretty sure normal service will be resumed before you know it – Neil Lennon might have the audacity to get an unfashionable haircut, or Ibrox boss Ally McCoist might exclusively reveal his top ten kitchen utensils. Hold the back page….