Hearts have been served with a liquidation notice by HM Revenue and Customs.

A notice was published in The Scotsman today spelling out the severity of the problem facing the Edinburgh side that Celtic face tomorrow night.

Hearts have had a number of tax problems in recent years and also fell foul of the SPL over unpaid wages.

Vladimir Romanov put the club up for sale towards the end of last year but has had no interest with the club reportedly valued at £50m by the Lithuanian.

Today’s development is another worry for fans of the club with HMRC no longer prepared to allow football clubs to act differently from other businesses.

Hearts are well used to dealing with these matters with a club statement indicating that the latest bill will be settled.

It read: “The club is aware of the notice placed in a newspaper relating to an earlier petition presented to the Court of Session.

“We are confident, however, that the relevant matter involving HMRC will be resolved in the very near future and no action as specified in the public notice will be necessary.”

Celtic’s u-19 side finally get back into action today with the home match against Inverness Caley Thistle definitely ON, kick-off 2pm

John Kennedy’s side will have use of the undersoil heating pitch at Lennoxtown to play just their second match since the turn of the year.

A fortnight ago Kennedy’s side won 2-1 away to St Mirren as they started to clear the backlog of fixtures that sees them three games behind Hearts with ten game left to be played.

Continuity of selection is never likely with various demands placed on players but momentum in terms of results is required if the hoops are to retain the title.

Today’s match should kick-off an intensive period of action, weather permitting, for the side with Kennedy looking forward to the challenge.

“It was disappointing that the game against Hibs was postponed,” be admitted. “But the boys were training Saturday and Sunday and desperate to get playing.

“There’s a lot of fixtures to be played over the next couple of months and the whole squad is going to be used.

“Inverness will be keen to put on a good show and will make it as difficult as possible. We’ll have a similar team to the side we had in mind against Hibs.

“We got three points away to St Mirren a fortnight ago and need to kick on from that performance if we’re to be among the prizes at the end of the season.”

Inverness have taken just two points from twelve games this season with a home win taking Celtic level with Hibs on 32 points with two games in hand on the Edinburgh side.

On Sunday Celtic face Aberdeen at Pittodrie in the quarter-final of the SFA Youth Cup, the two sides have already met twice this season with Celtic winning 4-2 at Barrowfield after a 1-1 draw away from home at the start of the season.

You can keep upto date with today’s match on twitter.

CLICK HERE for Lambert dismisses Rangers bid for Grant Holt

CLICK HERE  for Celtic’s five most important players of the season

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Selecting the five most important players of the season SO FAR is no easy task as last week’s article by Paul Morgan and the poll with that article proved.

Like Neil Lennon picking his starting XI game by game there will be as many arguments about who is in as there are about the players out.

Everyone has their favourites, even managers, and no manager has ever picked a team that had all supporters nodding in agreement.

Since writing on this site, I’ve written about some of the best and worst players to have worn the hoops. This time round, I’m going with a piece on the five top players of the season so far.

Instead of just writing about who I thought my top five have been, I contacted my Celtic supporting mates and asked for their five top players, so if you disagree with what I am writing, then feel free to give as much grief to my mates as you like!

It’s widely accepted that a successful football team has a good solid spine so it’s appropriate that big Fraser Forster is the first player that I am writing about.

Last season, I wasn’t particularly worried about the thought of playing this season without him. I felt that Lucasz Zaluska would be a competent enough first choice. He seemed a bit uncomfortable at times, seemed to loose some silly goals and my biggest problem with him was his lack of communication with his defence. An online piece described him as being like a stoned giraffe and as much as it did seem a bit harsh, I could see where the writer was coming from.

Fast forward on to this season and Forster seems like a different ‘keeper. Any team challenging for honours needs to have a keeper who can win the team some points and the big man has certainly done that this season. Is it a confidence thing with him ? I’ve no idea but the fact is that his save late on v Dundee Utd in the recent 2-1 win was probably the difference between us getting three points instead of one.

Of course, that’s just one and there will plenty of other examples.

Number two on the list for me is Victor Wanyama, he’s only been here for a few months and has a song about him already. I always think that any team who want to win anything should have goals from all over the pitch so when we have a guy who is primarily a defensive player, but can chip in with some goals then we are doing well with him. On top of a few goals, he is very good at tackling without conceding fouls and he seems to know when to stay on his feet and when to go to ground.

He can play at centre half as well as his preferred midfield position, doesn’t waste a lot of the ball and seems to always be playing with his head up and looking for a team mate instead of just punting the ball up the pitch like so many defensive players can be guilty of doing.

With some players, you take to them straight away and Wanyama was one of those. After seeing his debut, I decided that I liked him and that he’d be a good player for us. Can we keep a hold of him or will he be swayed by the bright lights and big bucks of the Premiership ? Maybe, but for just now, I feel he deserves a mention.

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To no-one’s great surprise Celtic have been drawn away from home to Dundee United in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup.

Half jokingly Neil Lennon had suggested that his side might be heading to Iceland after knocking out Peterhead and Inverness Caley Thistle to reach the last eight.

In almost two years in charge of Celtic Lennon has still to experience a home draw in the Scottish Cup with the road to Hampden in the League Cup taking in away ties at Ross County and Hibs.

Former Motherwell manager Billy Davies got into the swing of things as he performed today’s draw with Celtic coming out of the bag in the third pairing away to Dundee United.

It was the ninth time running that Celtic have been drawn away from home which would have given any hoops supporter odds of 1,020/1 had they placed a bet following the home win over Queens Park in 2009.

Since then Celtic have been drawn away to St Mirren, Morton, Dunfermline, Kilmarnock, Berwick Rangers, Rangers, Inverness twice, Peterhead and now Dundee United.

The quarter final tie will take place on March 10 or 11, the weekend before the League Cup Final with Kilmarnock.

Hearts will be without first choice goalkeeper Marian Kello for Wednesday’s crucial SPL match with Celtic.

Kello, who is out of contract at the end of the season and has been linked with a move to Celtic, turned down a switch to Austria Vienna last week and is now feeling the wrath of Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov.

Jamie MacDonald was in goals for Hearts in yesterday’s 1-1 draw with St Johnstone with coach Paolo Sergio admitting that it wasn’t his decision to leave out the Slovakian.

“There is an issue running between him (Kello) and our board, a political thing. It’s not up to me to explain that,” the Hearts boss admitted.

“I was told that because Marian is not committed with the future with Hearts, we should play the others. It’s a tough situation. It’s not a good thing for us.”

Neil Lennon was at Tynecastle yesterday to watch the 1-1 draw with St Johnstone with Sergio unhappy that his side only have two days to prepare for the visit of Celtic.

He added: “It was better for us if we played Saturday, one more day to recover the team.

“We were told because of the rugby game we couldn’t play on Saturday. I wanted to play (on Saturday), or even Friday. Now we’re going to play with two days recovery between two games.”

CLICK HERE for Lambert dismisses Rangers bid for Grant Holt

CLICK HERE  for Butcher: It was like a training session for Celtic

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Ally McCoist believes that uncertainty over the Rangers tax case is affecting his players.

On the back of a week where attention has centred on the clubs financial problems a Scottish Cup exit was the last thing that the club needed.

Less than 20,000 fans turned up to watch Dundee United win 2-0 to cut off another source of revenue for the troubled club.

One of footballs oldest cliches is that players put other problems behind them when they go on the park but asked about a crisis at the club McCoist admitted that the outcome of a £49m tax bill is effecting his players

“I think the crisis point comes with the tax case more than anything,” the Rangers boss said after his side’s Scottish Cup exit. “That’s the biggest problem that the club faces, I don’t think there is any doubt about that.

“What we all need is clarification on what’s happening so that we can move forward. The uncertainty regarding this tax issue is the biggest problem that we have.

“You could use the word ‘crisis’ in terms of the tax case, but we need to know one way or another where it stands and what we face so we can deal with it and move forward.”

Rangers failed to bring in a striker during the transfer window but after losing Nikica Jelavic to Everton McCoist is hopeful that he has the budget to bring in a free agent.

He added: “ I think if I went to Craig with a player that we could maybe bring in he would certainly have a look at it. We’ve got two or three targets.

“I haven’t gone as far as the finances but I know two or three players that would be appealing to us.

“But I will not bring anybody in who I don’t think can go into the team or better the squad. I don’t think there is any point in that at all.”

The verdict on the Rangers tax case isn’t expected to be known for several more weeks.

CLICK HERE for Lennon: Rangers brought it on themselves

CLICK HERE  for Butcher: That was like a training session for Celtic

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Paul Lambert has dismissed Rangers bid for Grant Holt but joked that he’d help his skipper move to Celtic!

A £1m bid from Rangers for the 29-year-old was instantly dismissed by the Canaries as the Ibrox side searched for a replacement for Everton-bound Nikica Jelavic.

Ally McCoist was unable to add a forward to his squad despite stating that he wanted to bring in two new strikers during the transfer window with the bid for Holt never likely to succeed.

“The Rangers bid was nowhere near our valuation,” the former Celtic skipper confirmed. “I told Grant what was going on and he gave absolutely no indication that he wanted to talk to them.

“If he had it might have been different. A move to Rangers might have been attractive to a lot of players but they are not as strong as they used to be.

“Everybody wants to play in the Premier League and Grant is no different.

“He has waited a long time to get into the Premier League and it’s great for him to be playing here, considering where he has come from.

“So while it was a flattering offer, I never expected him to want to leave. Mind you, if it had been Celtic I would have driven him up there myself!”

Holt was in the Norwich side that beat Bolton 2-0 yesterday with Lambert’s side sitting comfortably in ninth place well clear of the relegation dogfight.

Since taking over as manager from Bryan Gunn Lambert has enjoyed almost constant success with yesterday’s three points especially satisfying for the Norwich boss.

Lambert added: “In my time, which is nearly three seasons now, that’s as good as it’s been because of the circumstances and the desire they showed.

“They were brilliant. They were fantastic. It’s a blow when you lose your two centre-backs. I can’t remember that happening to me before.

“The two lads who went off are big, big players and Bolton are a big side. It showed the desire of the lads to not get beaten.

“We deserved to win the game. I thought we were dominant, and we might have got another couple of goals.”

CLICK HERE for Lennon: Rangers brought it on themselves

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Terry Butcher couldn’t hide his anger at Celtic’s Scottish Cup win over Inverness claiming that it was like a training match.

Goals either side of half-time from Georgios Samaras and Scott Brown gave Celtic third third win of the season over Butcher’s side as the visitors made it 15 domestic wins on the bounce.

Inverness went out of the League Cup to First Division part-timers Ayr United but the former England World Cup hero felt that today’s defeat was more disappointing.

“It was like a training match for Celtic today,” Butcher claimed. “They worked harder than us and that is an awful thing to say.

“I can’t believe how frustrating it is and how disappointed I am. We just let everybody down.

“Celtic could have scored more goals and the only positive I can take from the game is that we only lost 2-0.

“We hardly had a shot, we hardly had a cross and we hardly had any decent play in their half and the penalty was a comedy of errors.”

Caley Thistle striker Jonny Hayes was just as devastated tweeting: “Apologies to anyone who paid for that today! Terrible performance mainly from myself! No excuses against a better team.”

CLICK HERE for Lennon: Rangers brought it on themselves

CLICK HERE  for Daily Record turns on Craig Whyte

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