Hibs Blog

William Hills have given odds on the first SPL manager to be sacked next season and guess what?  The favourite hasn’t yet been appointed.  But yes, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the new Hearts manager is the least likely to see the season out.

Personally, I think it might be worth against it because at this rate it doesn’t look like they’ll even have a manager for next season.

The odds are as follows:

FIRST SPL BOSS TO GO
9/4 Next Permanent Hearts Boss , 7/2 Jimmy Calderwood, 9/2 Jim Jeffries, 9 Mixu Paatelainen, 10 Mark McGhee, 12 Craig Brewster, 12 Gus McPherson, 16 Gordon Strachan, 20 Walter Smith, 25 Craig Levein, 25 John Hughes, 25 Billy Reid

A pound each on a few outsiders mightn’t be a bad bet, or it would be if it weren’t for Vladamir Romanov.

In a great wee story carried by todays The Scottish Sun, some sad Jambos are moaning that the designers of Grand Theft Auto IV have used the game to have a dig at Heart of Midlothian Football Club.  They claim there are characters based on Hearts players as well as Jambo overlord Vladamir Romanov.

The game features a Russian money lender named Vlad (sound familiar?) who falls out with Roman – an Eastern European, suspected to be based on Roman Bednar the ex-Hearts striker.  Rumours of a bloated, bitter, alcoholic politician named George appearing may be only rumours.

Hearts fans also claim the baddies wear maroon in the game.  Don’t all baddies wear the combination of blood and faeces that makes maroon?  It seems to me the game would be unrealistic if the bad guys were to wear anything else.

The person quoted in the Sun said “The references are really subtle but they are everywhere.  There are too many, it can’t just be a coincidence.”

It’s quite possible too. A good few Hibbies worked on the game for Rockstar North, more than likely loads more than the number of Jambos.  As we know, Hibs fans are more likely to work in cool industries like music, art, game design etc. whereas Jambos have a propensity towards working for the Cooncil or Scottish Widows.

True or not, it’s another great wind up for our paranoid friends from Gorgie.

These are obviously good guys, the one on the left even has a new away top.

George Foulkes – not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Update 28/12/08: The drunken Lord Foulkes is in the news again for two reasons.  He’s been rumbled for a huge expenses claim for travel between Edinburgh and London to do his second job. He’s also been heavily criticised for talking utter pish in the Scottish Parliament.

Since he was given his own column in the Edinburgh Evening News, George Foulkes, the drunken Baron of Cumnock, has provided us Hibbies with an almost constant source of entertainment. Today, the disgraced achoholic MP came out with this garbled pile of doo-doo.

Incredibly he seems to be under the impression that Vladimir Romanov might take notice of his rambling, unreadable rant. He really does not seem to understand the situation as it stands. But then, the land of reality where most of us exist is as exotic a place for poor George as it is for many of his ilk. Anyone remember when he got pished, fell over, got arrested then claimed he’d been mugged before finally being charged with assault and drunken buffoonery – I don’t think that was the exact legal term but he got a hefty fine and booted out of his comfy job on the front bench.

Or what about the time he tried to claim £45,000 for expenses on a flat he himself owned? As I say, a thin grasp on reality.

Anyone remember the next time he got “mugged” on a trip to Europe with the Jambos? Pished again, unsurprisingly.

It goes on and on really but here’s a wee bit of a Hibby bating highlight from todays opus:

George Foulkes in an open letter to Vladimir Romanov;

“I mean, are you not embarrassed, even a little? Your team finished below Hibs, a side that will no doubt achieve zero debt by summer. Do you find that in any way acceptable? That a far superior sporting organisation as Hearts with a more loyal fanbase and greater potential, slides below a team that hasn’t won a Scottish Cup in over a century?”

Told you he was barking.

The annual Edinburgh comedy festival took place in the Gorgie Suite in Tynecastle yesterday. Roman Romanov hoasted the 102nd and possibly last Heart of Midlothian AGM and, true to form, it turned into farce.

Romanov explained his team’s bottom six finish to the season by saying the league is “fixed” and Hearts were screwed by referees. Presumably all six teams above them have been bribing referees.

And it gets worse….

The Hearts chairman was unable to advise whether Roman Bednar is under contract with Hearts, Kaunas or A.N.Other.

He advised that he hasn’t installed a new manager because – “it’s very difficult to find a manager. Most managers are already out of a job” . WTF? If they’re out of a job then they’re perfect, surely?

Then the real bombshell, part I of the big stadium climb down:

“Finally we’re having real progress,” he said. “Now we’re just deciding which stand we want.

“If the fans don’t want a big complex we’ll put three or four options to them. Of course the final decision will be ours. If the public are concerned about debt we might go for a cheaper option.”

Who would bet against them building either the cheapest possible option or nothing at all?

I’m getting a bit wary of continually writing about what’s going on over the other side of the capital as this is mainly a blog about Hibs…..HOWEVER….they just keep supplying such gold dust material. lol The demise of the guntmeisters part 2,232,512….

Front page of todays Edinburgh Evening News is a story about how Embra Cooncil are apparently a bit peeved at the fact that the Jambo’s are pissing them around regarding the complicated plans to rebuild the main stand at Tynecastle. Quelle surprise!

According to the EEN, “Senior Figures” in the Council have cast doubt over Hearts’ ability to redevelop the stand. Personally I find it hard to believe the Council ever rubber stamped it in the first place as it was and is never going to happen. If it does, I will personally volunteer to eat George Foulkes‘ pish stained Y-fronts.

Delays and debt fuel fears over stadium