The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
It’s so simple, Hearts were the worst team
With the new Premiership season due to kick-off six weeks today, we finally know the format for 2020-21 and in the end, it was no surprise to discover the SPFL will set up just as it has in each of the previous seven campaigns.
I never wanted a temporary reconstruction, it would have been all too messy, but I had reluctantly come to the conclusion that a permanent 1410-10-10 would have righted any perceived wrongs and stopped the moaning, particularly from Tynecastle.
That is now set to rumble on for months as Hearts and Partick Thistle go down the legal route in a bid to secure compensation.
Some of the figures being bandied about are preposterous and in any case, informed opinion seems split on their chances of winning any action. If they do, it will impact on every other club in the country.
There has been a rewriting of history in all this. You might be forgiven for thinking Hearts had been randomly plucked from mid-table safety and ejected from the top tier, given some of what has been said about their plight.
Their Premiership season began on August 4 2019. They had more than seven months and 30 games to secure their status.
They emerged victorious in just four of them. Since beating St Mirren at the start of November, Hearts won two out of 18 in the Premiership.
In the weeks leading up to the enforced shutdown they lost at home to Kilmarnock and drew with Motherwell and Hamilton. In their final game, a crucial one in Paisley, they were beaten by their relegation rivals.
Did they have time to pull off a miracle escape? Yes, of course. Was it likely they would do so? Absolutely not.
Ultimately, they were relegated – not expelled – by the various votes not going their way, but that was how the game had to deal with the crisis. In the main, they went down because they were, quite clearly, the worst team in the Premiership last season.
Two other teams were relegated and I have more sympathy for one of them.
Stranraer were always going down. Eight points adrift in League One, they hadn’t won at home since the start of November and not on their travels since April 2019.
Partick Thistle do, however, have a much stronger case for complaint than the others. They were two points behind with a game in hand when the league was called. Their relegation rivals Queen of the South were on a similarly poor run of form, but the Jags had drawn their last three to close the gap.
Of the three clubs who were relegated, Partick Thistle have been treated most harshly; they are the only one I believe might well have saved themselves on the field.
There has been self-interest in all of this, but Hearts are just as guilty of that as every other club in the SPFL, certainly in their mounting of a legal action. Democratic votes by members brought the season to a halt then determined the status quo should remain.
The classy thing to do would be to accept it, but that clearly is not about to happen.