A thoroughly dispiriting little item plopped into the email inbox in the course of researching an article during the week. It was a breakdown of all the debts Gretna owed when they went out of business four months ago. What a tawdry, depressing list it was. Here was £176 owed to a skip hire firm, there £23 for an unpaid television licence. And there was a £320 debt outstanding to a clan gifts company, perhaps something to do with the full Highland regalia worn by manager Rowan Alexander during their 2006 Scottish Cup final appearance.
Gretna played Hearts that day, May 13, 2006, the greatest day of the Brooks Mileson era at Gretna and, so far, of Vladimir Romanov's stewardship of Hearts. How the pair of them lorded it back then, giving off the unmistakable vibe that they were two self-made mavericks who had come along to shake up Scottish football. They revelled in occupying Scotland's showpiece match while Celtic, Rangers and everyone else were absent. They were the outsiders who would operate outwith the traditional boardrooms and cabals and do things their way. Romanov liked Mileson's style, saw him as someone who shared his instinct for looking the establishment in the eye and sticking up two fingers.
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