Gordon Strachan has revealed threats against his family while he was Celtic manager and insists crowd issues should have been sorted then.
The former Scotland boss believes supporters should have been embarrassed into changing their behaviour.
And he revealed police officers situated around the technical area at Tynecastle ignored his reports and told him just to focus on the game.
Strachan was Celtic boss for four years between 2005 and 2009 and admits that the abuse he used to get was way over the top.
But it was a particularly worrying story in a trip to face Hearts that left him overly concerned.
Speaking to BBC Sportsound, he said: "I'd have a word with every player in my team and say 'Listen, we live in a really sensitive world with fans hanging over the side shouting, screaming and swearing and we have a media that will rip you to pieces if they feel like it. They will destroy you on your personality so we have to be ready.'
"We explain to all the players because it's not easy to control yourself when you see the faces of hate screaming at you from a yard away. It's not easy.
"We've let this grow in the last 15 or 20 years. I think we had the technology of stopping this 20 years ago.
"I used to watch games and see people sitting with kids and making horrendous gestures, swearing...we could have zoomed in on them and embarrassed them.
"You didn't have to fine or ban them, you just zoom in and go, 'Is this your husband? Is this your employee?'
"That would have stopped anyone doing anything like that again so we let it grow for 20 years. We let it fester.
"When I was at Celtic I used to get it at Tynecastle in particular. And my wife, my mother and my sister...unbelievable things they said.
"A couple of guys were on the dugout and were telling me they knew where my mother lived and they were going round to sort her out.
"I asked the police to do something and his exact words were, 'Watch the game.'
"Guess what happens six years later? Someone jumps out of the same area and smacks Neil Lennon on the head.
"We should have clamped down on this a long time ago."
