Romanov stonewalls on Burley

FORMER Hearts manager George Burley and chief executive Phil Anderton are still seeking compensation from the club despite the fact that the current chairman Roman Romanov believes the club's achievements this season have far exceeded the initial targets.

It was his father, owner Vladimir Romanov, who said the aim was to win the Premierleague within three or four years. But having spent most of this term nestled in the top two, the current manager and players have been told that failing to finish the season there would constitute failure.

"Of course [it would]," Roman Romanov said, "but whether that is Graham Rix's fault or not we will have to reassess at the end of the season."

It is hardly the vote of confidence the manager, whose short-term contract is up for renewal in the summer, would have wished for in the build up to this afternoon's crucial match against Rangers. However, having admitted that the barrier was raised to such heady heights in light of the dramatic start to the season, when Hearts went 12 league games undefeated, Romanov refused to admit that they may still have been challenging for the title if they had retained the services of Burley.

The signing of the former Ipswich and Derby County player had been described as a coup at the time and having inherited a relatively Spartan squad, he moulded together new signings in a matter of weeks to take the Tynecastle side to the top of the Premierleague. Since then, they have slipped behind Celtic in the race for the title and their lead over third-placed Rangers has been cut to six, with the teams due to meet today.

"Of course we still feel we are capable of finishing second, but it is a competitive league. You always want to be on top and at the end of the season we will see where we are and assess what could be done differently. Every day you think, is there anything I could have done differently? You analyse your decisions and some of them are wrong and some of them are right, the same with every human."

But the split with both Burley and Anderton are not among the decisions prompting regret. "I think we think about it very often and I don't think it could have been done any differently, from George Burley's side or our side. It was the best decision for both parties. We got into a situation where both parties felt it was difficult to move forward. Yes, we were top of the league but we don't know where we would have been now if George Burley didn't leave. It's a guess. But we don't have regrets. Nothing could have been done differently."

But he refuted the suggestion that the decision had conclusively cost the team the league title and claimed that Burley did not deserve all the credit for that blistering start to the season. Despite the fact he had recruited a small, threadbare squad, and the club has always tried to bat away claims of selection interference from Vladamir Romanov and attempted to play down talk of a controlling streak when it comes to player recruitment, the Lithuanian's son insisted the manager had actually walked in to find a team already taking shape and quality signings en route. "George Burley was just part of a team," he claimed, adding: "The key players were already here. Credit should go to who brought them in and kept them here."

He confessed that the club did have talks in the aftermath of the decision to part company with Burley, which was broken to the players on the morning of a game, but said that while there had been reports that the club tried to lure Burley back, the facts had been misinterpreted. "We know what we talked about and it wasn't about him coming back."

Admitting that compensation was still to be paid to both Burley and Anderton, he said: "We are still negotiating the amount of any compensation and why we should be paying someone compensation. If the contract cannot be fulfilled, then why should we pay any compensation?"

"I'm not suggesting it was anyone's fault, but the club couldn't move forward." The fact that it was not moving forward as quickly as Vladamir Romanov would have liked is said to be the main reason for the breakdown in relationship between the club's owner and former chief executive Anderton. What Roman Romanov was willing to concede was the fact that Paul Le Guen had been put forward as a candidate to replace Burley, but he said that they had never actively pursued the Frenchman or tried to lure the future Rangers manager to Edinburgh. He said the club preferred to recruit managers and players who were hungry and had something to prove. As it stands, Rix still has something to prove.

"Three or four years [to win the league] is not an option any more. We need to do it quicker," said the chairman. And while he only wants staff committed to the cause and would be happy to see others go, he claimed he had not given up hope of retaining the services of international defender Andy Webster beyond his current contract. Queried as to whether Webster would want to stay, he said the only person who had said otherwise was the player's agent. "Andy hasn't said he is against staying. We want him to stay here and we will make sure he has the opportunity to do that."

How the non-playing staff would love those kind of assurances.

Taken from the Scotsman