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.
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“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.
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“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.”
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