ARNAUD Djoum admits that Saturday’s defeat to Celtic in the Scottish Cup final may well be his last game for Hearts, which is why he couldn’t bear to watch Scott Brown and his teammates lifting the trophy.
The Cameroon international will hold talks with Tynecastle manager Craig Levein in the coming days once the agony of the weekend defeat has subsided a little, but while he has still to conclusively make up his mind on his future, the midfielder says he was desperate to win the trophy as the match could very well represent the last time he pulls on the maroon.
“I wanted to do something good for this club,” Djoum said. “It was a chance for me to win a trophy, my first trophy with the club. I just really wanted to win this game.
“Maybe yes [it will be my last game], maybe no. I will speak to the gaffer. We need to sit down, talk a little bit and see what happens. But maybe yes, and that’s why I’m frustrated.
“I really wanted to win this trophy to give to the fans. With all the support they gave us, I wanted to win it for them.
“I just need to speak to the gaffer and together the gaffer and I will make a decision. We will try to find a solution. We will see. I will speak to him this week.”
Whatever his future may hold, Djoum is keen to stress the debt of gratitude he owes to Hearts in helping to build his career.
“That’s why I really wanted to win this game for the fans and the club,” he said. “Everything has been great when I have been here.
“Since the first day, even when I was injured, I had support from everyone. I just say thank you to the club and to the fans.”
Unfortunately for Djoum, if he is to leave Hearts, the overriding feeling he will take with him after the Hampden defeat is one of regret.
“We were organised, we didn’t give them a lot of chances, so it’s very frustrating to lose this game,” he said.
“It’s not the result we expected. We really wanted to win this trophy. When you see the game, we played well. We were organised and we scored first, in the second half. That’s really disappointing because after we scored we had the feeling that we would do something in this game. But we conceded two really stupid goals.
It was a penalty and the second one was not like they played through us. It was a stupid goal. So, we have some regrets.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here