Why Robbie Neilson leaves behind a divisive legacy at Hearts

Robbie Neilson with the Hearts squad as the celebrate winning the Scottish Championship title in 2015. Picture: Jane Barlow

A ll in all, you cannot deny the Robbie Neilson era at Heart of Midlothian has been a success. He was tasked with getting the club out of the Championship and back among the top three of Scottish football; two objectives he performed in surprisingly swift time.

Hearts won the second tier at a canter in his first season and he placed his side firmly back among the elite in the top flight the very next campaign. And yet, assuming there is no last-minute hitch on his deal to join MK Dons, he leaves a fan base divided in its opinion of  him.

While he was backed 100 per cent in his first season, as time went on an alternative viewpoint of the manager grew stronger and stronger within the stands at Tynecastle.

It got to the point where not since the early days of the Vladimir Romanov era had someone split opinion among the Hearts support quite so thoroughly, which is an odd thing when you consider their respective personalities.

Romanov was an egomaniac who sacked managers at will, promised Champions League success and made ridiculous statements in the press. Neilson, by contrast, was measured, humble and, unlike Romanov, actually delivered on what he set out to do.

Neilson said previously the criticism doesn’t bother him, but the man’s only human. When a group of supporters, in March of this year, felt the need to hire a plane to make their dislike known, it surely would have rankled, if not stung just a little.

After all, considering what he’d achieved, surely he deserved more respect.

He may have also recognised the growing sense of discontent and what it could mean to his future career prospects, which perhaps played a part in his decision to swap the top four of Scottish football for the bottom half of England’s League One.

Due to the Foundation of Hearts and the levels of money currently being pumped into the club’s infrastructure, including the rebuilding of the main stand, Hearts fans have greater influence than most.

The board may not pay much attention to your average grumbler from the terraces, but if monthly pledge cancellations started to rise, and it affected the bottom line, they would have been forced to consider the manager’s position. And with the way things were going, fourth place, where Hearts are expected to finish in terms of budget compared with Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen, was not enough to satisfy the home faithful.

From the outside looking in, it was easy to underplay the anti-Neilson sentiment and pass it off as a few undesirables holding a vendetta against the current coach.