Hearts Scottish Cup-winning hero empathises with current stars over wage cut offer

Ryan McGowan empathises with the dilemma faced by the current crop of Hearts first-team players after they were asked to take a pay cut by the club.

The Scottish Cup-winning right-back of 2012 is back in Australia monitoring the situation at his former club from afar.

Owner Ann Budge last week laid down a proposal for all Hearts employees, including players and coaches, to have their wages cut by 50 per cent or risk being released from their contracts without a severance package.

Captain Steven Naismith and assistant boss Jorg Sievers have both agreed to the cut, while manager Daniel Stendel has offered to work for free.

However, it's been reported that several members of the dressing room are unhappy with the proposed cuts and wish to negotiate before accepting.

Having gone through a similar situation in the 2011/12 season, where the Hearts squad were sometimes not paid for weeks at a time under the stewardship of Vladimir Romanov, McGowan understands the concerns of the players.

He even believes he had it easier because he could be distracted by football - a luxury not afforded to the 2019/20 Hearts team as Britain goes into lockdown in an effort to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

He told the Scottish Sun: “I've been through that situation before and players aren’t on English Premier League wages earning millions and millions of pounds.

“It’ll be interesting to see what happens. Players will have to make the best decisions for themselves and clubs will have to look out for the club first and foremost.

“It’s sometimes easier when you can play because you can escape everything when you’re training and playing games.

“But with how it is at the moment it must be difficult to have any kind of grasp of what’s happening.

“I just hope for Scottish football as well as Hearts, that they have things in place that can keep everyone afloat.”