Best thing Budge can do now is exit Hearts
THAT will most probably be that for Daniel Stendel, then. Turn up at a failing club, prove incapable of changing things for the better, give up your wages in a time of crisis and end up walking away a hero. If that is the German’s plan to make the very best of a very bad situation, you have to say that, so far, he is playing a blinder.
For Ann Budge, though, the business of trying to restore a battered reputation is a whole lot more complicated. Indeed, it looks like the only way she can make that happen is by walking out the door as soon as is practicable too.
Right now, she has a first-team squad on the warpath over being issued an edict to halve their wages or cancel their contracts and an entire workforce almost certainly feeling disillusioned.
Under plans discussed within the SPFL to settle all of the Scottish game’s key issues on the basis of existing league positions, Hearts, no matter their talk of legal challenges, are staring relegation in the face.
And amid all that, it looks, again, like Budge has signed another coach who simply isn’t up to the job in hand after bringing the place to its knees through her misplaced loyalty to Craig Levein.
Look, nothing is certain with Stendel. Perhaps he will come back after travelling home to be with his family in these difficult times. The odds, though, have to be against it.
He’ll get another job elsewhere when the coronavirus crisis has passed. Should any future chairman ask why it all went wrong for him in Scotland — not that anyone outwith our borders really cares — he has an easy ‘out’.
Well, he inherited a shambles of an operation at Hearts, didn’t he?
Right from the outset, he has been telling everyone that the challenge of rebuilding the place after Levein’s ruinous reign was bigger than he could ever have imagined.
There can be no argument that what preceded Stendel’s arrival in December was an ever-unfolding disaster, but it also has to be said that he hasn’t done much to turn things round since.
Yes, there were a couple of victories over Rangers, one in the Scottish Cup, and a derby triumph at Easter Road, but those results have been exceptions to the rule.
From a total of 14 league fixtures, there have been two wins. Hearts are four points behind 11th-placed
Hamilton and six away from safety with eight games to go.
There were clear signs players were losing faith in Stendel, too. Details of unusual training sessions — involving goggles and ropes — leaked into the media. There were rumours of a dressing-room revolt.
In their last game before the suspension of the league, they lost in Paisley with a display that led Stendel to accuse the team of lacking fight.
Marcel Langer and Donis Avdijaj, two of the players he signed in January, have barely been seen.
It is hardly overegging the pudding to point out that things have not worked out as planned, considering Budge set him the target of finishing in the top four at the time of his appointment.
With an angry dressing room now roping in PFA Scotland to fight their case with those above him in the management structure, the chances of turning this season round, if it ever does start again, appear slimmer than ever.
Let’s just say that it is easy to see why calling a halt to things right now might not be the worst thing for either party.
That there is a break clause in Stendel’s contract if Hearts go down should not be a huge surprise. They couldn’t pay his current wages in the Championship, for starters.
However, in between the plaudits thrown the 45-year-old’s way for giving up his salary — and, let’s be clear, he should be praised — there was an admission from his agent Timo Rodewald on Friday that cast questions over his own long-term intentions.
Rodewald visited Edinburgh earlier in the month and couldn’t give ‘a clear answer’ when the club asked if Stendel would be interested in staying in the event of relegation.
‘In general, he thinks that if the club go down with a certain manager — whether it is Daniel Stendel or any other coach — then it might be a good idea to change the manager,’ stated Rodewald.
Even if Hearts somehow preserve their Premiership place, it is hard to be effusive about the job Stendel has done. That makes life even more difficult for Budge given the fact she had to get this managerial appointment absolutely right after years of failure and waste.
This is not a question of hammering her over the midweek assertion that pay cuts are required to stave off redundancies. It stands to reason that belts must be tightened when income dries up — even though dishing out ultimatums to people is not a good look.
More detail on why she has had to get quite so hardline quite so early would be useful, mind you, against the backdrop of a football department that has failed miserably and a Main Stand that looks like costing almost double the initial forecasts.
Raking over the coals of those horrendous periods Ian Cathro and Levein spent in charge of the team are pointless, of course.
Signing more than 80 players in five years and ending up with a useless squad that will have to be dismantled again is damning enough.
Budge’s admission at the turn of the year that there hadn’t been enough ‘rigour’ in assessing signings and that the medical departments hadn’t really been pulling together just feeds into the suspicion that this is an organisation that has not been run properly for a while.
Supporters will never forget that there would be no club without her. She came in with her own money in 2014 and committed to transferring ownership in time to the resounding success that has been the Foundation of Hearts.
That will still happen. Sometime. When it does, though, she ought to ditch her plan to carry on steering the ship and give someone else a shot.
Budge’s place in history is already assured. But like all those with a legacy to protect, there comes a time to walk away.
The day she officially delivers Hearts, as promised, into the hands of its supporters looks like it would be perfect.