Capital Underachievers

[beefy]

Interesting read
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[Bartok]

Absolute pish, heard it a hundred times debated in a hundred pubs and a dozen message boards, don't bother debating it cos it's a non-starter. It may make all sorts of economic sense but it makes no sense at all to anyone who cares about the Hibs.

Most of the guys I know who are Hibbies would self-immolate if we ever considered a merger.

Fuckin silly season right enough.

[6207]

Originally Posted by beefy
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Interesting read
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Weegie pish, sorry I may be drunk and don’t post often but that is a load of patronising nonsense.

I just had to get that off my chest!

Good night

[wee 162]

The article on wikipedia must have changed since he wrote [Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register]...

Wallace Mercer (June 4, 1946 - January 17, 2006) was chairman of Heart of Midlothian F.C. from 1981 to 1994. He is remembered for resurrecting Heart of Midlothian, and taking them within 10 minutes of the league title in 1986.

He saw the financial power being wielded by the the Glasgow teams, and had the fanciful notion that the only way to combat it was with a single Edinburgh team. Mercer was a pioneer in attempting to asset strip football clubs. He had never realised that football to the people who watch it was not "just business" and he was to pay the price of this. In 1990 he attempted to take over Hibs, and liquidate the Club he actually owneds natural business rival. The hostility this provoked from every Hibs supporter, and a very small proportion of the Hearts support appeared to take him by surprise. After a permanent police guard being put on Mercers abode in the Cramond area of Edinburgh, and a check for car bombs carried out any time that he wanted to leave his house, he fled to France. After being unable to buy enough shares to takeover Hibernian, he pulled out and gave his traditional media bluster of the reasons for his running away as being nothing to do with him, and citing reasons such as "parochialism" as the reason why he pulled out of the bid. It was absolutely nothing to do with him bricking it from the thought of half a city he lived in being willing to kill him and "taking the time".

After the indignity of not being able to "beat the Hibs for once and all" Mercer slowly became an object of derision and ridicule from Hearts supporters who started realising that he was taking money out of the club. One such incident was his buying the club shop for well below the market value, and then proceeding to rent it back out for an annual rent of the price his company had paid for it.

He died of cancer in early 2006. An element of the Hibs support has never forgiven Mercer, and sing songs taunting his death to this day, despite this they managed to maintain a complete silence when the first game after his death happened to occur against Hibs. The dignity and lack of foul taunting during the minutes appreciation is probably a reason why Hibs supporters are regarded with the greatest of respect amongst Scotish football supporters, whilst the Hearts fans inability to observe a minute of silence on that day has rightly confirmed their stature in Scotish football circles as arseholes.

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In case some vandal spoils this piece of important reportage on Wikipedia, I would suggest cutting and pasting, and adding any more comments which you feel are valid to it...

[davy27]

I was a young man at the time that fat jambo j*********** tried 2 kill our team but as my dad tells the story: cast your mind back to summer of 1990 a fat overweight conservatite sleazebag hires three adult movies for a fiver, apon leavin he drives to end of d mains main st he stops at the zebra crossin to be confronted by a young hibs fan who takes great delight in givin him the two finger salute while kissin the hibs badge at the time as well as crossin himself just to get him 2 bite even more which in hindsite was not needed as he died on the job shaggin jr's wife. Was a bigger scandal who was not sleepin with the fat cow as the old song went st down if you admit to shaggin robbos wife ha ha ha ..... Wallace Mercer Is Dead End of.... Always Believe that wallace is dead dirty **** pissedon him just to make sure!!

[hibsbollah]

good article. i don't think theres any real argument that we have underachieved as a city to provide a serious challenge to the OF, which is the point thats being made....

[hibbybrian]

Originally Posted by hibsbollah
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good article. i don't think theres any real argument that we have underachieved as a city to provide a serious challenge to the OF, which is the point thats being made....

the article should have expanded the hypothesis to include the OF under achievement in European competition and suggested a merger was best for both parties
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[TranentHibee]

better yet lets merge all the SPL teams and have one SUPER TEAM!
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[Smurf]

Pish article.

Scotland has two huge clubs because they are fat on institutionalised sectarianism.

[Greenmachine]

Originally Posted by Smurf
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Pish article.

Scotland has two huge clubs because they are fat on institutionalised sectarianism.

Correct.

You will never hear/read this truth anywhere in the Scottish media however.

[Greenmachine]

When will these so called "intelligent" football writers realise that mergers in football are a non-starter and completely impractical in almost all cases ? It can only work in very few cases in small non-footballing communities like Inverness where it was indeed the only way forward. I agree with the article when it says that both Edinburgh clubs have hugely underachieved over the years. That is the individual clubs fault, nothing to do with not being big enough. Both Edinburgh clubs are large enough, and have a big enough support and turnover to be winning trophies and doing well in Europe far more than they have been.

Mercer was a 1980's product. He believed in destroying things for his own end. He wanted to destroy Hibs. He wanted one big club in Edinburgh called Hearts. He had no care or thought whatsoever for Hibernian or what that great club meant to so many people. He was thankfully beaten by people power. The man was not a "visionary", he was deluded lunatic who should have been carted off by the men in white coats after the press conference to announce his "merger" project.

It has to be said however, that Hibs at the time created the circumstances for this farce. Duff and Gray were a couple of chancers who were totally out of their depth. It was a scary time which must never ever be repeated.

[Smurf]

Originally Posted by Greenmachine
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Correct.

You will never hear/read this truth anywhere in the Scottish media however.

It's in the main why i'm not a Nationalist. What does it say about us as a nation that you hear/read very little about it - let alone it tackled head on?

The authorities refuse to challenge them directly about it. From the Scottish Executive to the SFA.

Because of UEFA there is a bit of action coming next season - but they are intent on targeting all the clubs on all chants that could be deemed offensive, so look out and prepare for, them making an example of us or Aberdeen next season...

[GalegoHibs]

Originally Posted by Greenmachine
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When will these so called "intelligent" football writers realise that mergers in football are a non-starter and completely impractical in almost all cases ? It can only work in very few cases in small non-footballing communities like Inverness where it was indeed the only way forward. I agree with the article when it says that both Edinburgh clubs have hugely underachieved over the years. That is the individual clubs fault, nothing to do with not being big enough. Both Edinburgh clubs are large enough, and have a big enough support and turnover to be winning trophies and doing well in Europe far more than they have been.

Mercer was a 1980's product. He believed in destroying things for his own end. He wanted to destroy Hibs. He wanted one big club in Edinburgh called Hearts. He had no care or thought whatsoever for Hibernian or what that great club meant to so many people. He was thankfully beaten by people power. The man was not a "visionary", he was deluded lunatic who should have been carted off by the men in white coats after the press conference to announce his "merger" project.

It has to be said however, that Hibs at the time created the circumstances for this farce. Duff and Gray were a couple of chancers who were totally out of their depth. It was a scary time which must never ever be repeated.

The Herald article is an attempt to fill column space and is hardly worth commenting on. Anyone can see that the Edinburgh clubs have underachieved. What beats me is this idea that some people seem to have that merging clubs will mean twice as much success and crowds twice as big. Is there any evidence anywhere for that? Many fans will just drift away elsewhere. The Inverness case was a special one because without the merger they might not have got their place in the Scottish football league or got their chance to be where they are now. As an Invernesian I would also take issue with the statement that Inverness was a non-footballing community.
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It wasn't the fault of Inverness that it couldn't get a team into the Scottish leagues for many years despite having three part-time clubs which all had crowds that matched or were bigger than a number of teams in the then Scottish Second. Also, no-one should underestimate the strength of feeling in Inverness at the time, especially from Thistle fans who felt their club was effectively taken over. Maybe this doesn't have too much to do with Hibs but I just thought I would point this out. No offense taken GM.
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[HibeePaddy]

tell all the hearts ya know...wallace mercer is dead and we're no
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end of story...tht article is just a patronising piece of wegie media and we shouldnt be giving it any air time whatsoever

[beefy]

I like to read about Hibs whatever the subject matter.I even bought a Sunday Mail this morning
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[persevered]

Originally Posted by Smurf
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It's in the main why i'm not a Nationalist.

What has that got to do with anything?

It was a lazy bit of journalism. That bit about wikipedia. WFT was that about? Wallace Mercer was about as visionary as Stevie Wonder cos his hostile takeover was never going to succeed.