Bit of background on Brellier (seeing as I'm a Hearts fan too!)

First off, like pretty much everyone else, I'm delighted at him joining us: he's exactly the kind of player we've needed for ages, and will help make us far, far harder to beat. He doesn't do anything fancy - just gets his foot in and protects the back four. But he's one of those players who, while you might not notice him that much when we're playing well, you'll soon miss if he's absent: he's that vital cog which makes the wheel turn effectively.

He DOES pick up a heck of a lot of yellow cards though, that has to be acknowledged. It's also worth bearing in mind that he became such a cult hero in Edinburgh that sometimes, sometimes, the fans could overrate him and make him out to be more than he was. Brellier was signed by George Burley shortly after GB became boss: and Hearts embarked on their best start to a season in 91 years. But after Burley left, Romanov seemed to regard Brellier almost as a personal enemy: notoriously, after we'd played brilliantly and drawn 1-1 at Celtic in October 2005, Romanov is alleged to have awarded JB three out of ten, and insist that his personal favourite, the erratic, often lazy Saulius Mikoliunas should've been picked instead.

Most on here will have some knowledge of what followed: team spirit collapsed, and various cliques formed, Lithuanian players in one group, Burley signings in another. But Brellier's treatment was most bizarre of all: despite being a fan favourite and plainly an integral player, he was continually dropped, played out of position, or ignored altogether. This made many fans more and more angry: thus did Brellier become, if you like, the poster boy for those fans most irate at what was going on, and wanted Romanov to butt out as a matter of urgency.

Despite all this, he always gave his all, and showed for my money a remarkable amount of patience considering the s**t he constantly had to put up with. Quite clearly, he loved living in Edinburgh, and loved Hearts: but our owner's idiocy and pig-headedness meant he was bound to leave this summer. What I'd confidently expect from him is a first-class attitude, and solid, consistent performances. Don't get too carried away: he's not a world beater - but although they're different types of players, he could make us much a difference to our chances of success as Gary Holt did after he also signed from a non-Old Firm club a little over six years ago.

Posted By: thebigfeller on July 3rd 2007 at 22:07:10

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