| The shock departure of manager George Burley a fortnight ago was followed at the beginning of this week by the sacking of chief executive Phil Anderton and chairman George Foulkes appearing to jump before he was pushed by millionaire owner Vladimir Romanov.
That’s led to a widespread questioning of what the Lithuanian banker’s real plans for the Jambos are and McCracken concedes there has been as much discussion on the subject in the United dressing-room as anywhere else.
Idle gossip and business are two different things, however, and when the teams cross the white line in the capital he is sure both sets of players will be thinking football and nothing else.
“Each day you are looking at the Hearts thing and expecting something else to happen because of what’s gone on, and we’ve all be talking about it,” said McCracken.
“Professionally, it is nothing to do with us as players and I am sure it will have no affect on the game. Because of what’s happened and with them losing their derby last week, people are talking as if that’s them finished, but they have still got the same players who got them to the top of the league.
“They have a lot of experience and they are a strong side. They are only behind Celtic on goal difference and, whatever has been going on there, Tynecastle has always been a hard place to go to.”
As tough as he expects the 90 minutes to be, McCracken is not totally convinced United are facing the capital’s best side tomorrow. He certainly does not agree with former director Foulkes that the championship is a two-horse race.
“I have to say, in terms of footballing ability, Hibs are right up there with Hearts and Celtic. What I’d say about Hearts, is they are physically very strong and, although they are definitely not a route one team, they are direct.
“That makes them tough to play against — we found that at Tannadice early in the season. We’ve made good progress since then, though, and I think we can take something from this one.
“As a team, we are defending better and we are always capable of creating chances. We dipped against Aberdeen last week, but, if we play the way we did against Falkirk before that game and Celtic on Sunday, we will be in with a chance.”
McCracken missed the Hoops defeat because of a tweaked hamstring, but returned to full training yesterday and is expected to return in place of teenager Garry Kenneth.
“The injury was not too bad, but I’ve had this kind of thing before and I think the sensible thing to do was to miss a game and make sure I’d be back in a week. In the past, I’ve played carrying an injury and ended up being out for four weeks.”
The other decision facing manager Gordon Chisholm is whether to restore fit-again attacker David Fernandez to his line-up or continue with weekend scorer Collin Samuel.
There is a chance he may play the Spaniard just behind the front two, meaning there is room for both in his line-up, but that would be taking a risk away from home.
With an unnamed player going down injured in training, Gordon may not now finalise his starting XI. until the morning.
“I’ve had to wait to see if McCracken and Fernandez suffered any reaction to training and now I’ll have to see how this player is. But I have not been able to finalise my team anyway, so it is not too much of a problem,” he said.
Like McCracken, he expects the Hearts players to take the off-field shenanigans in their stride.
“You are talking about a team with a lot of experience and full of international players who will not let this bother them. We won’t be thinking about it either — it’s going to be a full house and it is one we are looking forward to.” |
