Barcelona too hot for Hearts

Is this the future of Scottish football? Playing one of the great clubs of Europe in front of a massive attendance in the late-afternoon sun, Hearts caught a glimpse of what life could be like at the top table.
Barcelona are a big draw - this game was being shown live on TV in over 100 countries - but there is obviously real appetite for football in Edinburgh. The 57,857 who made their way to Murrayfield, the home of Scottish rugby, broke the 75-year old record for a Hearts game in the capital. It only emphasised the need for Hearts to move to a ground that can accommodate this wider fan base. Tynecastle holds only 17,420, which would be embarrassing in the Championship.
Going down 3-1, they were far from embarrassed here though. This Barca team promises to be one of the great attacking line-ups in the history of the game. Ronaldinho scored twice and Hearts could not get near him. Samuel Eto'o was just too quick and, when Thierry Henry came on in the second half, he was at his disdainful best, gliding past lesser mortals. When the Frenchman hits match fitness, he will take La Liga by storm.
What will surely inspire dread in the rest of the European elite is that Lionel Messi will be added to this mix after recovering from Copa America duty with Argentina and Barca are coaxing through two exceptional talents of the future. Giovanni dos Santos, 18, scored the third and is like a mini-Ronaldinho, while Bojan Krkic, a Spanish forward of Serbian descent, is frighteningly gifted. He turns 17 next month.
The glamour of it all could not obscure Hearts' real mission though. The Scottish Premier League begins a new season next weekend and Hearts open their campaign with an Edinburgh derby against Hibernian.
Scottish football has been pinned under a Glaswegian thumb since Alex Ferguson left Aberdeen 21 years ago but there is evidently potential away from the banks of the Clyde.
Aberdeen themselves are resurgent and if Hearts can provide a serious rivalry to the Old Firm, then Scottish football can break away from the provincialism that has made them one of the minor players in the European game. It is a recurring refrain, but there has never been a more opportune moment for Scottish football to elevate its own expectations.
The national side is in rude health and the defeat of France in October demonstrated there is ample Scottish talent emerging from the academies. Celtic and Rangers have both encouraged the emergence of players from their youth system.
This is the problem with Hearts. There were just four Scots in the starting line-up yesterday and the goalkeeper, Craig Gordon, has been the subject of serious bids from English clubs, including Sunderland. The majority shareholder, Vladimir Romanov, continues to shuffle players between his three clubs, with a large number of Lithuanians imported on loan from FK Kaunas.
Three more Lithuanian trialists were doing their best to impress yesterday but, while some of the transfers have genuinely improved the Hearts squad, there is an undercurrent of instability at the club, especially after the popular Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley left in ugly circumstances last season. It is difficult to build confidence when you operate by the whims of a plutocrat, and one who has gone as far as accusing Celtic and Rangers of trying to fix matches. This is the wrong side of eccentricity.
As it stands, Hearts are managed by Anatoly Korobochka, who does not speak any English. On a day-to-day basis, they are coached by Stephen Frail, who does not know whether he will still have his job when the season begins. The players love him but Romanov remains inscrutable. Until they get their house in order there is no way they will challenge Celtic or a revived Rangers, being led once again by Walter Smith.
The problems Hearts will have were clearly demonstrated yesterday. The team made an encouraging start and, when Juho Makela equalised Ronaldinho's early penalty, there was a sustained period where Hearts held their own. But they faded badly after the break, looking disjointed and fragile as a catalogue of trialists and sub-standard reserves took to the field.