BEDLAM IN BULGARIA
Bjorn fell out of Lovech with game after KO
Hearts’ fixture list has been kicked from pillar to post all season with games on six of the seven days of the week.
But Bjorn Johnsen still reckons this is bliss compared to the bedlam he went through in Bulgaria.
The switch of the Jambos’ clash at Hamilton to Monday night because of the M74 closure this weekend means the only day they won’t have played a match will be a Tuesday.
The 25-year- old American striker, though, is grateful for the semblance of stability the Scottish game has given him after a red card for former club Litex Lovech sparked chaos and saw them thrown out of the Bulgarian league when they were sitting top.
Johnsen said: “It would be nice to get some consistency about the fixtures. It’s hard to get a rhythm when there are so many different factors.
“But it’s not frustrating, not really compared to Bulgaria. My consistency was good when I was playing in Portugal. My standard and goals-to-games ratio were up there but even though I tried to keep that up in Bulgaria, it was so hectic.
“And it’s funny, the game that kicked it all off, the one against Nevski Sofia when I was sent off, if that had been in Scotland then it wouldn’t have been a red card. It would have been a warning.
“We had an altercation. I pushed him, he pushed me so I pushed him again and that ended up being a red card.
“It was a derby game so the blood was flowing. And we were first in the league at that point – but we weren’t supposed to win it. Ludogorets are supposed to win the league every year.
“But we were playing well and we were even winning that game 1- 0, despite being a man down – and then we got another red card and a penalty given against us.
“I guess that’s when my boss, Stoycho Stoilov, decided he’d had enough.
“I was in the dressing room, all the players came in so I thought it was half time. I was asking what was happening and everybody was saying, ‘He took us off the field!’.
“The game was over but the Bulgarians were angry because it was a big TV game and we were top of the league.” Litex were suspended for the rest of the league season, their players left in limbo until some were granted special permission to play in their B team in the league’s second tier.
And Johnsen said: “It was just weird. You’re playing a game, you get angry, get a red card – that happens, it’s a game. “But we had no idea what was going on. We had a winter break, went away as a team to Greece and Spain.
“We were told they were going to put us back in the league.
“We had just finished pre-season in La Manga and had played well, we hadn’t lost a game since that day. So obviously we were on a high thinking we are going to get back into the league.
“But we didn’t. They put some of us into the Second Division.
“We still played in the cup and still got to perform in the semi-final.
“Then I had contract issues when I was trying to get a move over here as well –that took longer than I would’ve hoped. So now we’re moving games around to Monday nights? It’s really not that bad compared to what happened in Bulgaria.
“It ’s just about trying to f ind consistency in those days you have training and on match days.”
The hitman knows the Jambos are in a serious battle for second spot with Rangers, Aberdeen and St Johnstone and is relishing the physicality of the new challenge facing him.
But he has seen it all before – the fact that they’re all a long way short in what is effectively a one-horse race.
Ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Hamilton he said: “The competition is really high.
“Celtic is that bar you want to reach but then you basically have to push yourself against everyone else down there.
“We need to keep that concentration in games that are important, like the Hamilton game this week.
“I have to get used to the physical side as well because I’ve come from two places where it is technical, not forceful like it is here. “I don’t know if you saw how Ludogorets played Arsenal but they play technically – they don’t have that same kind of force and physicality you do here.”