This is an independent Hearts fan page. I have nothing to do with the club except as a fan. I stole all the images on here coz i'm bloody punk rock!
Heart of Midlothian Football Club was founded in 1874 and took its name from the Royal Mile dance hall frequented by the founders. Tom Purdie became the first captain, winning a one-v-one competition to secure that honour.The club initially played at the Meadows, Powburn and Powderhall before taking up residence in the Gorgie area in 1881, moving to the existing Tynecastle site five years later in 1886.Hearts were the only club from the East of Scotland to become founder members of the Scottish League in 1890 and success came quickly with two league titles and four Scottish Cup wins between 1895 and 1906, including a 3-1 win over Hibernian in the only Scottish Cup Final to be played outside Glasgow, at Logie Green in 1896. This period saw many great players wear the maroon jersey including arguably the best of all, Bobby Walker, who won 29 caps for Scotland.The First World War brought more fame to the club but not on the field of play. The entire playing staff volunteered to join the forces and, in doing so, encouraged thousands of supporters to follow suit. Seven players were killed in action, few of the survivors managed to play again after the horrors of the trenches, but their sacrifices have never been forgotten and every year a Remembrance Service is held at Haymarket where a war memorial to the club stands proudly.Despite having a reputation for exciting football and setting record attendances at many away grounds, the club had to wait until the fifties for its next silverware. Under manager Tommy Walker the Scottish Cup returned to Gorgie in 1956, with the League Championship flag following in 1958 (a season which saw the side score a record 132 League goals) and 1960. The side, which contained legendary names such as Alfie Conn, Willie Bauld, Jimmy Wardhaugh, John Cumming, Dave Mackay and Alex Young, also won the League Cup on four occasions.A period of decline followed this golden era, culminating in the club dropping out of the top division on three occasions in the late seventies and early eighties. However, in 1983 Hearts came back to the top division for good and came close to bringing success to the supporters on a number of occasions. Although no trophies arrived the fans at least had an unparalleled streak of 22 league games without defeat against rivals Hibernian to celebrate.The breakthrough finally came in 1998 when under manager, Jim Jefferies, himself an ex-player, Hearts lifted the Scottish Cup defeating Rangers 2-1 in the final at Celtic Park.Over the next couple of years Hearts form was inconsistent at times, and this resulted in the eventual departure of the cup-winning hero Jefferies in late 2000. In his final months at Hearts, the team came dramatically close to eliminating VfB Stuttgart from the UEFA Cup, having recorded a memorable win over the Germans in Edinburgh.In December 2000 former captain Craig Levein was appointed as head coach to replace Jefferies. The new boss immediately set to work on restoring the fortunes of the team by adopting a fresh philosophy within the squad. His approach had proved a successful one, particularly in the league, where Hearts have now recorded back to back third-place finishes and consequently successive UEFA Cup qualifications for the first time since the 1960s.This has followed a season during which the team went to France and memorably defeated Girondins de Bordeaux in their own Parc Lescure stadium, where Mark De Vries poked home one of the most remarkable away goals in many a year. Unfortunately the French side overturned the first-leg deficit at Tynecastle, however no supporter will ever forget that magical night.Levein's second consecutive third place finish again gave his side a crack at the UEFA Cup, now operating in an exciting new group format. Hearts made it to this stage by taking care of Portuguese side SC Braga 5-3 on aggregate. Drawn in a group with Feyenoord, Schalke, Ferencvaros (all previous winners of this trophy) and Basel, it looked a tough task to qualify.This became even more difficult when Levein and Houston left to join Leicester City in October 2004. There was really only one candidate for the job and nobody was surprised when Tynecastle striking legend John Robertson was plucked from Inverness Caledonian Thistle a matter of days afterwards. Despite a memorable victory in Basel in the UEFA Cup, his arrival came too late to earn progression into the last sixteen.In February 2005 Vladimir Romanov completed deals to buy shares from Leslie Deans and Chris Robinson which gave his investment group Ubig a 29.9% share of the club. As part of the deal chief executive Chris Robinson resigned. He was, after an interim period under Sergejus Fedotovas, replaced by former Scottish Rugby chief Phil Anderton.Heart of Midlothian Football Club were changing and with that John Robertson's short spell as head coach came to an end after six months. His replacement was a clear statement of intent. George Burley, who commanded a fine reputation across Europe, was lured from England, where he had managed Ipswich Town and Derby County, and embarked on a spectacular spending spree with support from the club's major financial backer.Short time success was secured, but after "irrevocable differences" George left the club. He was replaced by Graham Rix, the former Chelsea coach. Just after the departure of George, chief executive Phil Anderton left the club. Although not a direct replacement, Campbell Ogilvie, the former Rangers director arrived in Edinburgh as operations director, with a remit to run the football club on a day-to-day basis.Although life was difficult at the beginning for the new coach, Graham slowly began to get the team playing as he wished. He was later aided by Jim Duffy, who joined the club as a coach, initially, before becoming director of football. Alas for Graham and Jim, their partnership was short lived. Both were dismissed barely before the end of March. The new man was an internal appointment: Valdas Ivanauskas was handed the job on an interim basis.He will forever go down as the man who delivered Hearts seventh Tennent's Scottish Cup, after a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Gretna, and perhaps more importantly a crack at the UEFA Champions League for the first time as runners-up in the league.It was no surprise when the Lithuanian was confirmed as the club's 25th 'manager' in June 2006. He would be assisted by John McGlynn and new sporting director Eduard Malofeev.
