Gary Locke on why he is seeking Foundation of Hearts election

Why have you put yourself forward to become a Foundation board member?

I just feel that I can help. I'm a full-time employee of the club, so I know kind of everything that goes on behind the scenes. I know everything that goes on on the football side. I think I'm probably in a better position, than most, to try and help the Foundation. And I think the Foundation could be stronger. I think it could be bigger in terms of the amount of people that are contributing to it. I think I could obviously help as well with the relationship between the Foundation and the club. If I get voted in, great, I'm really looking forward to trying to help. And if I don't, then I'll just go back to doing the job that I do every day.

In terms of the candidates you're in a unique position as being an employee of the club. Were there any concerns or issues about going forward as an employee of the club?

No, there were no issues for me at all. I don't read social media, but I've got to hear some of the stuff. And when I hear people saying that, I've got to be a mole for the club, and I've got to be this, I've got to be that. I've genuinely never heard so much crap in all my life. My intention my whole life has always been: Hearts come first. Anybody that knows me and knows how I feel about the club... I'm not going to be sitting feeding information back to this one and that one. I'm putting my name forward for the Foundation because I care deeply about the club. I want the club to be the best it can possibly be. And if I can help in any way, shape or form, that's what I want to try and do.

I've seen how the Foundation works. I've worked closely with a lot of the guys that have been involved with the Foundation since it started. They've all done a wonderful job and all deserve credit and when I hear that some of them get sick, and some of them get abused by our own fans for what they've been doing for the Foundation, it genuinely makes me sick. These guys are spending all their spare time, they're not getting paid for it, they've done an unbelievable job. All the other fans from other clubs wrote them off from day one. You see the model that we've got now, you know, it's something to be proud of and something to brag about, not something to give stick about. Now that I've put my name forward, I believe that I've got a wee bit of stick from not many fans, but some. I genuinely shake my head at that. I've got no agendas here. It's about trying to help the club be better, and trying to help the Foundation be better. If people have got a problem with that, I'm not going to apologise.

There will be some who may see it as a conflict of interest, from what you said, you don't see it like that?

No, see, my opinion to that, is how can there be a conflict of interest? My interest is Hearts being better. So there's no conflict there for me. I've got a job to do here as a club ambassador and I try to do that to the best of my ability. But anybody that knows me, they know that all I ever do is, it's not for the betterment of Gary Locke or raise my profile or anything like that. Everything that I ever do is for the betterment of Heart of Midlothian. Now if that means the under-9s winning a game, the women's team winning a game, the girls' under-9s winning a game, that's what I work hard towards. It's not for anything to suit me as an individual or for me to get any benefits individually. As I say, titles and that do not bother me. Everything I do is for the betterment of Heart of Midlothian. And if people have got a problem with that, I don't really know how to answer that question.

As far as even suggesting there be a conflict of interest, how can there be a conflict of interest? My job at Hearts every day is to try and make Hearts better. Whatever we do, whether it's hospitality, whether it's sponsorship, whether it's the team, whether it's helping the players or the management or anything like that. And it'll be exactly the same for the Foundation of Hearts. I can't see for one second how people could see that that would be conflicting.

What would being a Foundation board member allow you to do on top of being the club ambassador?

Well, being the ambassador, I meet fans every day. Because you're in the building every day, if the Foundation has got stuff that they would like answers to, all that type of stuff. With me being in the building every day, I think that can help. It can only help. You know, it can only help with the Foundation moving forward.

As well, because I've been a player, a lot of the fans, maybe not personally, but they do know of me. I think that can also help as well with the relationship with trying to get new members on board, trying to get information to the current members of the Foundation, trying to help them be a bit more clear about what the club's doing, all that type of stuff. For me, it was a no-brainer in so much that it can only benefit the Foundation and the club because you've now got, this is if I get voted in, you've now got a guy in the middle that can help bring both together which I think will be positive.

And from your experience and insight, what do you see as the challenges that the Foundation faces?

Yeah, the next step for the Foundation is to try and get more people to donate every single month. I think the biggest challenge we've got now is to get on board the new generation of Hearts supporters, the younger Hearts fans, families as well, who can be more involved with the Foundation and just try and bring everything together.

I know that the Foundation's been going a while now and they seem to do a lot of the same stuff, but now, for me, you've got to try and take it to the next level now. And I think that is by encouraging more Hearts fans to get involved in whatever it is the Foundation decides to do.

It's maybe went a wee bit stale in as much that it's the same people that are always putting their money in. How can we now encourage your next generation of Hearts supporters and get more families involved. Because we are very much a family club and a community club, so you want to get all that to come together and get everybody in the local community to help us as well. So these are the things that are not just my decision, but I definitely feel that moving forward, we need to try and encourage that type of personnel to get involved.

What would you like to see the Foundation do more of to get that greater engagement and increase those members who do pledge?

I think you've got to get a wee bit more transparent with the fans. There's a lot of things at the club that are confidential. People will say to me quite a lot, "I put my money in, I put it in for my love in the club, I'm not bothered what happens to it". But then you do get other people that say, "I put my money in every month, what do we actually do with that money? Where does it go? What do we use it for?" I think things like that can definitely help moving forward so fans are a wee bit more aware of what's happening with their money, where it's going, what it's doing. I think that's what a lot of the fans are looking for. So if I can help with that, you know, I'd be over the moon to do that.

How do you think the Foundation can change that perception of fans thinking that they don't have an influence?

Yeah, they've got two members on the board that have been for the last number of years. The Foundation has got a huge influence on what happens at the club. You've got to be sensible as well. I go back to Bonnyrigg after games, and if every single fan was to have a say in how the club is run, it would never happen because everybody's got a different opinion. You're never going to keep all the fans happy. I've been involved in football a long time, and football is about opinions. It's the same for the eyes of judging a player or a fan judging a player.

We've all got different opinions on it, but I think you need somebody with a football background involved. Gary Mackay played a huge part in getting the Foundation off the ground. That's the reason why I put myself forward. We've always had really reputable business people involved in the Foundation, but there has nearly been somebody with a football background that's played the game, managed it at a decent level. I think I could maybe try and help with that. Most fans are happy when the team's winning, the football side's going well. I think off the pitch we're in a great position the way the club gets run. But inevitably, it's results that make the difference to a fan's mood at the weekend. So if I can help with that, I think that is important that's what I put myself forward for.

How important is it for the Foundation to have a structure or a robustness in place where it's protected from the mood swings in football fans from when it's going well to when it becomes difficult?

You speak to the guys and the girls that have been involved in the Foundation, they'll tell you that if we come off the back of two, three bad results, they'll probably lose so many pledgers and then once everybody calms down. They then start pledging again. That's just the nature of the beast, when people are angry about what's happening at the club, it's quite negative. When things are going well, everything's positive.

I'm like any fan, I want us to win every single game, we all know that that's not possible, but I'm not going to stop my contributions just because we've lost a couple of games or the club's not making a decision that I feel they should be making.

We're all in it for the reasons where we saved the club alongside Ann Budge and we're now wanting the club to prosper. I think that's the message that we have to get out to the supporters is: through thick and thin, you're a Hearts fan, it doesn't always go well. I've said that to my wee man who's only three: you're going to have a lot of disappointments in your life following Hearts, but when we do get success, it's special. The reason that we've got the Foundation of Hearts is so that we don't get in the position that we were in under Vladimir Romanov again. And the fans, in my opinion, have got a huge say on that. The more money that we can get into this Foundation every month, the more that helps the club, the more it makes sure that we'll never, ever be in that position again. That's the most important message of the lot is: we've all got opinions on the club, but the board will make the decisions on how the club is run. That's why it's important that it's fan-owned, not fan-run.

We have people in place that are representing the Foundation that gets the majority of our opinions across. But obviously, they're not going to be the opinion of everyone because we all disagree on everything when it comes to Hearts.

And so finally, if elected, what's the most important thing for you to take into the Foundation or you want to happen with the Foundation?

I think it's to bring everybody together. I'm not saying that that's not the case at the moment, but I think I can help galvanise everybody, get everybody singing from the same hymn sheet. And inevitably, to make Hearts better. That's the reason why I put myself forward. My job every day, as I touched on earlier in the conversation, is to try and make Hearts better every single day, no matter what it is. That's the only thing I've got on my agenda in terms of the reason why I put myself forward for the Foundation, just to try and help us be better at everything and get the Foundation and the club closer together and get everybody pulling in the one direction. Because if we do that, then obviously we're a lot stronger.