There was only ONE thing bigger and better down south.. the dosh
Souttar and Halkett should think twice before leaving Tynecastle
NEXT month it will be a decade since I left Hearts for Ipswich Town and the lure of something bigger and better in the English Championship.
I’ll not lie to you. I TREBLED my wages.
But believe me when I say the dosh was the only thing bigger and better.
Attendances? Nope. Atmosphere? Absolutely not. Size of club? No chance.
Other than the money it wasn’t a patch on Hearts and I couldn’t get back up the road quick enough after less than a year at Portman Road.
That’s my message for John Souttar and Craig Halkett as the transfer speculation intensifies with both in the final few months of their contracts and linked with a string of English second-tier sides.
The big fear for me is if one of the Old Firm come calling next month.
That would admittedly be difficult to turn down with the size of those clubs and the guarantee of European football.
But who else are we talking about here? Stoke City? Blackburn Rovers? Bristol City? Middlesbrough?
Don’t get me wrong, going down to England was great.
Ipswich are a good club, we were doing well, we had attendances around 17,000 which was okay and I made good friends.
But Hearts was a drug to me and I think outsiders really don’t grasp how big a club it is.
Right now everything is going in the one direction at Tynecastle. The future looks really bright and why would you not want to be part of that?
I firmly believe Hearts are two signings away from splitting the Old Firm come May, a top-class centre-half in case Souttar leaves and a striker to help Liam Boyce.
That’s why it’s crucial the majority, if not all, of the outof-contract stars including Craig Gordon, Souttar, Halkett, Stephen Kingsley, Michael Smith, Peter Haring, Jamie
Walker, Andy Halliday, Armand Gnanduillet and Jamie Brandon stick around.
Hearts will already have a good indication of where these guys are at with their thoughts.
Souttar is the big one. I can only hope he sees the chance to win silverware, the fact he’s playing regularly and back in the Scotland set-up and thinks it’s worth staying on longer.
As I said I think Hearts are still in with a chance of splitting the Old Firm.
They are on a different level to everyone outside the top two and have shown they are good enough to take points off both Rangers and Celtic too.
They were close to taking a point at Parkhead last week, being beaten by a dodgy goal.
Now they will be licking their lips at the prospect of Rangers coming to Tynecastle on Sunday.
Ten games unbeaten at home this season is no surprise given the ferocious backing of 20,000 fans.
Robbie Neilson will tell his players to use that energy to have a right go at the champions. There’s absolutely nothing to fear.
I expect Hearts to put their stamp on the game. They can cause the Rangers central defenders problems and in wide areas they can give Tavernier and Barisic trouble.
They’ll need the big players to be at the top of their game.
Any successful team needs a good goalkeeper and a good striker. If ever a match proved just how good Craig Gordon and Boyce are it was the 1-0 win over Livingston.
Gordon is outrageously brilliant every week. His triple stop at Livi took the breath away and I must have watched the save from Jason Holt on repeat for half an hour.
He epitomises everything that’s good about the club right now.
His brilliance paved the way for Boyce to win the points.
It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t even particularly good. But gaining three points when far from their best shows this side is the real deal. Now it’s time to prove it with a statement result against Rangers.