DUFFY'S SYMPATHY FOR UNDER-FIRE VALDAS

FORMER Hearts coach and director of football Jim Duffy believes Valdas Ivanauskas will escape the sack for the time being.

But Duff also thinks the rest of the country is enjoying it while the manager and Tynecastle owner Vladimir Romanov squirm their way through a spate of bad results.

Ivanauskas is currently on a two-week sick leave from the club but the man who knows everything about Romanov's unpredictable behaviour said: "Mr Romanov has put the smirk back on the face of Scottish football for everyone except the Hearts fans."

Duffy travelled to Edinburgh one Saturday evening last season having forewarned his wife that a hastilyconvened meeting with Romanov probably suggested the sack and the end of his managerial partnership with Graham Rix.

He went back home as Tynecastle's director of football but ultimately the Romanov axe fell on Duffy's head and he knows how the game works when it's going against Hearts' owner.

He said: "If you've had as much to say for yourself as Vladimir has since taking over Hearts then it's only natural that those you've criticised are now revelling in your discomfort.

"He filled the heads of the Hearts supporters with big ideas and they heard it so often they actually started to believe what he was saying.

"He told everyone the Old Firm's way of playing the game was outdated and Hearts had the kind of style that would make them a force to be reckoned with in Europe.

"And then he persistently moaned that other teams were out to kick his side off the park.

"The upshot is that Celtic are eight points above Hearts while Rangers are two points behind and closing in.

"Hearts are out of two European competitions before Hallowe'en and they've got seven red cards on their disciplinary record to make them the worst-behaved side in the SPL.

"But I don't think any of this will cost Valdas his job. Everybody knows he doesn't pick the team anyway and Vladimir will probably leave him alone for that reason.

"Graham and I submitted our team to Vladimir on a Friday afternoon along with the reasons why we'd chosen it. And then he'd send it back with the reasons why he was changing it.

"If you know the rules, that's fine and Valdas knows the rules. It would be a major surprise if Hearts went through a complete season with only one man in the manager's office but I genuinely hope I'm wrong." The irony is that while Romanov has a reputation for ringing the changes it's his own, unrealistic expectations that have created Hearts' problems so far as Duffy is concerned.

He said: "Romanov wants Hearts to win and play a style of football that's impossible given the players he's got at the club. They aren't in a healthier state than they were this time last year.

"Celtic have widened the gulf between the clubs in spite of losing at Tynecastle earlier in the season and the quality signings that were promised by Romanov haven't materialised." Duffy also refuses to let Romanov off the hook when it comes to the broken promises he made to the Hearts fans about incoming transfers.

Duffy said: "He's the one who said he'd invest in new players. Nobody asked him to make those statements so he has to take full responsibility for not delivering the goods.

"Romanov believed the team was good enough to progress without good signings and that was an error. He won't make matters worse by binning Valdas."

If the smirk is back on the faces of those who don't support Hearts, what's to become of the Jambos who wore Cossack hats when Romanov arrived and now feel like they're wearing dunce's caps instead?

Duffy said: "People turn on you quickly but he took the plaudits and he'll be there to take the flak.

"Put it this way, if the Hearts job ever became vacant Romanov's phone would be red hot.

"It's not for me to say whether he's doing a good job or a bad one. In the short term he's good for the media because of all the things he has to say.

"The long term? That's where we'll need to wait and see."

Taken from the Daily Record