BERRA ON THE SHAME ATTACHED TO HEARTS’ HORROR RUN OF RESULTS
RETURNING to his native Edinburgh this summer, Christophe Berra had a vision. Of spending more time with his daughter and his parents and savouring an Indian summer in his career as Heart of Midlothian captain.
Walking to the Tynecastle car park on Saturday night, head bowed, collar pulled tight, avoiding eye contact with supporters, the reality proved a rather different experience.
‘I live in Edinburgh,’ said the Hearts skipper. ‘I have to walk around the streets. My friends might have some banter, but at the end of the day I am captain of the club. I come from Edinburgh, I live in the city centre. I don’t want to get beaten and not do well.
‘I don’t like walking about the town — you feel ashamed sometimes. That’s how I take it. I am my biggest critic, I am too hard on myself sometimes. But I have pride in my performance. There is a lot of weight on my shoulders.’
The embarrassment was most acute on Saturday night after a 2-2 draw with Dunfermline ended the Premiership club’s hopes of advancing to the last 16 of the Betfred Cup.
In a group featuring Elgin City, Peterhead, Dunfermline and East Fife, Hearts won just two games, the only top-flight team who failed to reach the knockout stage.
On social media, tactical analytics are all the rage, self-appointed coaching gurus throwing around facts and figures in a quest to add context to Ian Cathro’s record as coach. In the harsh world of the Hearts boardroom, they concern themselves with other numbers.
Appointed as Robbie Neilson’s replacement when Hearts were second in the Premiership table, an eventual drop to fifth cost the Edinburgh club a figure of around £600,000. An early exit from the League Cup closes off another revenue stream.
Yet the most damning statistic is clear; in 30 games in charge Cathro has won just eight. His failure poses wider questions. Former Hearts captain Gary Mackay believes Cathro was a ‘mistake’ and the responsibility for that reaches higher than the head coach. To Craig Levein, the director of football who appointed him.
The questions don’t only surround the former Scotland manager. Players including Conor Sammon and Malaury Martin were handed three-year deals in January. Evidence either was a sound investment is scarce and on Saturday the home dressing room was the scene of a verbal inquest.
‘We had words after the game,’ admitted Berra. ‘It was not just me. Kyle (Lafferty) said things, Don (Cowie) said things. Some of the other boys as well, the foreigners and that. We are a tight group. There are no bad eggs.
‘Everyone has an opinion. It’s good to hear from everyone, my way is not always the right way.
‘Everyone has different cultures; you have to listen to their point of view, too. I live in the town, my mum and dad read papers. I played for Hearts many years before, it was never plain sailing.
‘It’s like when you play for Hearts, Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen — if you play for a big club in a big city you get criticised.’
Scottish football has never been a place for the sensitive or the thin-skinned.
Criticism of Cathro’s appointment by fellow football men such as Kris Boyd and Stephen Craigan prompted a furious row between Scottish football’s hipsters and the established order accused of dragging the game back to the dark ages.
Questioning of the Hearts coach was cited as evidence of prehistoric attitudes. Quite where that leaves the home support chanting ‘Cathro, Cathro, get to f***’ after the Dunfermline draw is open to interpretation, but provides proof of an old adage. Football is a results business. ‘Obviously, everyone saw the reaction of the fans after the game and they were not happy,’ acknowledged Berra. ‘Some of it followed on from last season as well and, if you don’t win games, no matter who you play for, the fans are going to show their frustration.
‘I understand it. We were the biggest team on paper in the group and we should have had maximum points.
‘At the moment, we are not getting the results against teams we should be blowing away, really.
‘Tynecastle should be a place where visiting teams are on the back foot and we should be doing better.’
In truth, Tynecastle is the least of Hearts’ current problems. Due to the construction deadline for the new stand, the opening four league games are away to Celtic, Kilmarnock, Rangers and Motherwell.
There are no home comforts to be drawn from current events.
‘We know we have to improve our away record and the first four games are either going to be the making of us or not,’ admitted Berra.
‘We’ll be doing our best to go to Parkhead and do what no team has done in the past 12 months and get a victory. Then we have Kilmarnock, Rangers, Motherwell and Aberdeen at home for our first home game — and they are flying at the moment.’
We had words after the game. There are no bad eggs here
An away start against a Celtic team unbeaten in a meaningful domestic fixture for 16 months is not how Hearts would choose to start in their current plight. Nor how they would choose to start in such a fragile state of mind.
Nevertheless, Berra insisted he has no regrets over returning to his first club, challenging the younger Hearts players — including dropped Rangers target Jamie Walker — to emulate his career path.
‘I wanted to finish my career where I started my career. I have not come here for a swanny — I want to win things, like all the other boys who have signed,’ he said.
‘We want to get into Europe, win cups — that is our main aim. With the new stand being built, we need to show progress on the pitch as well.
‘It’s not nice to play in front of fans who aren’t happy but you just have to get on with it.
‘Hopefully, you get a reaction from that and there could be no better place to react than Parkhead. Winning there would be a massive statement.
‘Players have to thrive on these high-pressure situations.
‘I am different, I am a bit older, I have been there done that, but there are lot of youngsters who, let’s not kid anyone, have ambitions to go somewhere else and earn more money, and if they want to do that then they need to deal with that pressure.
‘It’s like at any team in the country and in Britain and Europe, if you’re not playing well then you are going to get booed and get stick.
‘The ones who can deal with it will go on to further their careers.
‘That is what I said to the boys: if you are not playing well make sure you are still running about and giving 100 per cent — that can be the difference between winning and losing.’