Robert Snodgrass axe is Hearts act of self harm that's hard to fathom so who is in Ann Budge's ear - Keith Jackson

If they ever start handing out trophies for self harming in Scottish football someone at Tynecastle had better order in a bigger cabinet.

Because even though Hearts are far from being the only club capable of turning a drama into a crisis, they do seem to specialise in the subject to such an extent that they can be considered best in class. And by some distance.

Yes, St Johnstone proved just yesterday afternoon that they too have a knee-jerk reaction in their locker which they are not afraid to use. By sacking Callum Davidson with just six games to go, the Perth outfit have managed to paint a picture of blind panic at a time when their position in the top flight seemed reasonably safe for next season. All of which would seem like an extraordinarily stupid thing to do had it not come about on the back of the latest eye-popping, kamikaze-style stunts in the Capital, where Hearts and Ann Budge have somehow managed to surpass themselves over the last week or so.

The decision to sack serial Hibs slayer Robbie Neilson, just days before an Edinburgh derby, was difficult enough to comprehend - and that was even before Steven Naismith oversaw the club’s first defeat in this fixture for three years at lunchtime on Saturday. Naismith hasn’t helped himself either in terms of his own credibility by insisting that securing a third placed finish is not really the be-all-and-end-all when Neilson was bulleted with that one issue in mind.

And then there’s the curious business of Robert Snodgrass who was effectively oxtered off the premises by Naismith on the caretaker’s first day in the job, despite being the most talented and influential player on the books. But all this might be nothing more than the tip of the iceberg where Hearts’