John McGlynn has refuted suggestions of a player mutiny at Hearts after a failure to make bonus payments prompted the Scottish Premier League to impose an indefinite transfer embargo.
Hearts are challenging the ban after the SPL announced Hearts have "not paid a number of bonuses and appearance payments" and also face a disciplinary hearing, with a full range of sanctions at the league governing body's disposal. McGlynn said: "This has not come from the players. The players are not concerned by this at all."
Managing director David Southern and Janine Brown, the club's human resources manager, addressed the players in advance of the SPL's statement, with McGlynn present. McGlynn also disputed the suggestion the Hearts first-team squad declined to sign a notice deferring bonus payments until the end of the season.
He said: "That's wrong. I was involved in these meetings. That was wrong."
Hearts insisted bonus payments from the William Hill Scottish Cup final win over Hibernian on May 19 had been paid. However, it is understood bonuses had not been received last week, so the payments were likely included in this month's pay packet, on December 16 - six months late.
Payments of bonuses due this season are understood to be in arrears, amounting to a six-figure sum. Hearts contend there is no defined date by which bonus payments must be made and that is likely to form the basis for their challenge on a point of principle rather than to rush to bring in players during next month's transfer window.
McGlynn was not surprised when he heard of the latest development and suggested he hopes a siege mentality spurs on his players in Sunday's Clydesdale Bank Premier League meeting with Dundee United.
"It's another day at Hearts, you just get used to it," he said. "Whatever happens in January I will deal with it no matter what. As long as we've got 11 players going out in that Hearts jersey, they will fight and play for that jersey."
Sunday's match should see Rudi Skacel, a Scottish Cup winner with Hearts in 2006 and 2012, return to Tynecastle. Despite being a member of the opposition, Skacel, who was withdrawn from the Scottish Communities League Cup quarter-final penalty shootout between the teams at Tannadice earlier this season, could be the most popular player at Tynecastle.
Zaliukas joked he would join in the proposed 51st-minute ovation for the Czech forward, the time a reference to the 5-1 cup final defeat of Hibs, when Skacel scored twice. McGlynn said: "I'll not be clapping. Rudi will always have a special place at Tynecastle. I'm sure if he's on the park he'll be doing his best for Dundee United, because they pay his wages."
Source: PA
