Ivanauskas remains part of Romanov masterplan...but Mikhailichenko set to take charge

DESPITE guiding Hearts into today's draw for the Champions League qualifying rounds and winning the Scottish Cup, Valdas Ivanauskas has accepted that he will not be in sole charge of first-team affairs next season.

That's despite effecting a run of seven victories in ten games as interim head coach at the end of last season and the fact that an Evening News poll of Hearts supporters returned a 98 per cent majority verdict in favour of the Lithuanian being appointed permanently. Clearly, Vladimir Romanov has other more prominent candidates in mind for the job.

Namely Alexei Mikhailichenko and Oleg Kuznetsov, currently part of Ukraine's World Cup coaching staff, who are expected to arrive at Tynecastle as part of a new coaching set-up as soon as Ukraine are eliminated. Ivanauskas admitted today that he will revert to his original coaching role with Hearts as Romanov, the club's majority shareholder, prepares to install a team of new medics and coaches at Riccarton.

Romanov has flown the entire Hearts squad plus coaches to the south of France over the last 24 hours and it is there he will inform them of the new coaching structure at some point late next week, with Mikhailichenko likely to be appointed as director of football above a three-pronged coaching team of Ivanauskas, Kuznetsov and John McGlynn.

The Evening News understands that Ivanauskas will hold a certain amount of seniority over McGlynn and Kuznetsov under the new set-up, but that the final call on footballing issues will be Mikhailichenko's.

"My position will be the same as last season," conceded Ivanauskas. "After we are back from France we will be able to say more on my role."

In addition to new coaches, Romanov also has a team of foreign medics ready to begin work in the physiotherapy department, an area that he believes was sub-standard last term.

Head physio Oliver Finlay remains suspended from the club after questioning the influence of foreign medics at Riccarton towards the end of last season.

After appearing in the Champions League with Rangers and the European Championship final for the USSR as a player, Mikhailichenko became head coach at the prestigious Dynamo Kiev in May 2002.

His first assignment was, ironically, to guide the side through the qualifying rounds of the Champions League that summer, which he managed by overcoming Armenian side Pyunik 6-2 on aggregate in the second qualifier and Levski Sofia 2-0 in the third.

Mikhailichenko's first flirtation with the group stages saw Kiev finish third in a group that was won by Juventus, with Newcastle finishing second and Feyenoord bottom.

The following year, 2003, Kiev were fortunate enough to avoid the Champions League's first and second qualifying rounds before dismissing Dinamo Zagreb with an impressive 5-1 aggregate score in the third. However, on that occasion they proceeded to finish bottom of their group, behind Inter Milan, Lokomotiv Moscow and Arsenal. In August 2004, Mikhailichenko was sacked by Kiev after losing the first leg of the Champions League's third qualifying round 2-1 at home to Trabzonspor of Turkey. Later that year he was recruited by the Ukrainian FA to take charge of their under-21 side and led them to the European Under-21 Championships in Portugal earlier this month, eventually losing 3-0 to Holland in the final.

Now 43, Mikhailichenko's insight into various levels of European club and international football can only ameliorate those with whom he will work at Riccarton. Much of Romanov's ambition for Hearts will rest on the shoulders of these two men.

Yet, the owner will remain acutely aware that Ivanauskas has already proved himself as being thoroughly capable of taking charge if necessary. Should the masterplan involving Mikhailichenko and Kuznetsov fail, Romanov appears to have preserved the perfect safety net for Hearts.

Taken from the Scotsman