"Due to recent unexpected circumstances away from Tynecastle, the club is now experiencing a shortfall in funding. This shortfall, due to recent uncertainty, has created a significant noticeable blockage in projected revenue streams for the club.
“While this hesitation is understandable it is unwittingly damaging the club’s current efforts to improve its financial situation including current payments to HMRC and raising doubts over future payments to players and staff.
"It is now crucial to the football club that we find a solution to bring in enough finance to allow us to trade into the new season when normal trading can resume with the benefit of SPL and game-related income streams. The payments to HMRC and players/staff salaries are the most important issues in our focus these days where very limited time remains available to the club.
"However given that the revenues for season tickets has dried up and no other realistic income is available quickly enough, the club will consider offers for the players of the current squad, including the most promising talent in order for the most necessary and important payments to be made. The board had planned to bring income in through the sale of players while considering the financial forecast for next season but now this will need to happen much earlier in order to preserve the business. We understand that this will lead to significant on-field pressure but at all times we must consider the health of the club and preserve it for future generations.
"We will adjust our expectations for the new season accordingly but will still be focused on the playing side of the business. Our financial deficit can, in part, be attributed to our worst league finish in over 30 years last season. This had a significant direct impact on the business. Other factors that hit revenues include the absence of Rangers Football Club from the SPL and significantly increased stadium costs particularly in relation to the Main Stand.That is grim reading. In fact, it is Three Of The Horsemen Of The Apocalypse Have Turned Up Ready For Action And The Fourth One Is Just About Visible On The Horizon-type grim reading.
"The biggest threat to the club at present however is hesitation and inaction. We hope that those supporters who have purposely held off will reconsider and make the decision to back the club in the best way possible in order that we can meet our targets.
“Provided we can achieve security for the club, it is the view of the board that there is a viable strategy for the change of ownership to a willing buyer or investor.
“The most difficult part in this is finding an agreement with the creditors, however we know that there is goodwill with Ukio Bankas, as demonstrated by the statement from the Ukio Bankas administrator yesterday. We also believe that UBIG remains supportive of Hearts.
“The biggest threat to the club at present however is hesitation and inaction. We hope that those supporters who have purposely held off will reconsider and make the decision to back the club in the best way possible in order that we can meet our targets."
I think it is now safe to say that the club's insistence in recent months that they are "self-sufficient" was complete and utter rubbish.
We already know that Hearts have failed to completely pay a £100,000 tax bill this week - though it is unclear how much of that is still due. Bear in mind that it was only November when they put out a desperate plea for cash to get them through to the end of the season; supporters came up with £750,000 for the club through a 'share issue' that reminds me of the title of a famous Dire Straits song (no, not Sultans of Swing).
Having been bailed out by the fans only seven months ago, this statement appears to criticize them for not buying more season tickets. It also blames the financial struggles on a disappointing league campaign and on the absence of Rangers (which, as a few will recall, Vladimir Romanov showed zero sympathy towards during last summer's debacle). Using Doublethink that the protagonists of Ninteen Eighty Four would be proud of, Hearts have pointed out exactly why fans aren't buying season tickets - the poor quality of the product on the field and the huge uncertainty off it - yet seem to lack any insight into their own role in this, instead demanding that the supporters continue to pour their cash into Tynecastle's black hole.
The implication that the sale of the club is dependent on the current crisis being averted is a proper attempt to tug the heartstrings (excuse the pun) - a squeal of "if the club go under, it's because the fans didn't do enough to save it". It should invite plenty of scepticism. Remembering the events at Ibrox a year ago, it's fair to suspect that this is an attempt to get as much money in the kitty as possible ahead of an administration process.
As for the squad, there's now a sale on in Gorgie that would make DFS blush. All the players are potentially up for grabs for 'reasonable offers' - except no-one in their right mind will offer generous transfer fees now they know that Hearts are desperate for income. And which players do they expect to attract decent offers? The senior players, such as John Sutton and Jamie Hamill, might be able to arrange free transfers to other clubs, but that will only get them off the wage bill. Young players such as Jason Holt and Jamie Walker might have some value, but how much? For comparison, last August Kilmarnock's highly rated youngster Matthew Kennedy left for Everton, who paid only £300,000 for him. I'd be surprised if Hearts could get half of that for either Holt or Walker.
Remember too that it is only a few weeks since Danny Wilson, the former Rangers and Liverpool defender, made his loan move to Edinburgh permanent - I bet for wages that are rather more than peanuts. Maybe it was all part of a cunning plan to see if they could sell him on. I doubt it. Recent history suggests that any cunning plans emitting from Tynecastle have been dreamt up by Baldrick.
And we haven't even mentioned how the club owe a bankrupt Lithuanian bank £15 million, or how their Lithuanian parent company appear to be on the verge of insolvency...
I seem to recall that, when blogging on the club's crisis at the end of 2012, I expressed huge sympathy for Hearts fans, but none for those in charge of the club. Their arrogance beggars belief. It is they who have dragged this club to its knees with their bizarre decision-making. Last week's report from Sporting Intelligence claims the average first team player at Hearts was on more than £5,000 a week last season - is it any wonder they are in a mess?!
Sadly I expect a few loyal, yet deluded Jambos will get out their pocket books once more, in the vain hope that their pennies will keep their beloved club alive. But surely, this time around, they can't come up with a figure anywhere near what they managed in November. The proposed sale to The Foundation of Hearts group appears to be going nowhere. There is no sugar daddy in sight.
For Hearts fans, there is now light at the end of the tunnel. The trouble is, it's because the end of the tunnel is on fire.
L.
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