Tynecastle Doom And Gloom

I was at the Shareholders' dinner last night and the feedback we were given from these meetings didn't exactly fill the room with glee. From what I can gather, those asking the questions received no real answers and left with no clearer a picture of what's happening than they already had. For example, questions surrounding the picking of the first team and the exclusion of certain individuals from it often received vague responses and in some cases, contradictory responses between Romanov and his cronies. This vagueness has been going on for some time now.

One of the most worrying things I heard was that apparently VR had said that in his opinion Zaliukas is a better player than either Brellier or Aguiar. If this is true and Romanov continues to have the same influence on team selection as he does now in the future, then I seriously do worry what will happen to our team.

The rest of the feedback came as nothing new to anyone who takes an interest in Hearts. There certainly didn't appear to be anything new of any significance on the subjects of the stadium re-development and temporary re-location, or the question of Romanov's longer term commitment to Hearts, which does still appear to be assured.

However what was more interesting were some of the things that guest speaker Mark Donaldson had to say about the club. Donaldson, best known for his energetic and completely unbiased (!) performances as a commentator and a Jambo himself, is deeply concerned about some of the things he's allegedly hearing from those on the inside. He has also been writing a book that's due to be released soon, that focuses on the controversial departure of George Burley from the club last season. It turns out that the full truth has been discovered and will be documented in this book and apparently the much talked about 'confidentiality agreement' was only ever verbal, nothing was ever signed. I found it a bit strange therefore, that none of the parties involved who would have had a grievance against the club, elected to say anything publicly at the time. I suppose all will be revealed soon.

Donaldson naturally did not mention any of his sources, but some of his specific concerns were quite eye-opening. Obviously you can't take what one journalist says as Gospel, but these were the things that particularly worried me:

1) All of the first team training is being taken by those who only speak Russian while Valdas is on sick leave. A translator is there desperately trying his best to get the messages across, but many of the players believe it's becoming a farce.

2) Factions are being created within the dressing room as a result of the bizarre team selection policy.

3) The players feel they are not being allowed to develop properly due to the continued overuse of squad rotation.

4) It appears that Romanov had a touch of the green eye towards George Burley, Phil Anderton and George Foulkes with regard to the popularity they had with the fans and the media. This was inferred as one of the reasons for their departure and a similar situation potentially exists with Julien Brellier.

5) Valdas is fed up to the point of ill-health at taking stick for decisions that are not his own.

6) The team line-up for the Killie game last weekend was sent to the Press on the Friday, but the team that actually lined up had three changes in it from that one. Brellier, Aguiar and Fyssas were all either relegated to the bench or the stand. This would tend to back up Jim Duffy's description of how teams are picked.

7) No-one seems to know who is making the substitutions. It was alleged that even the club doctor could be having an influence on these decisions. However I'd perhaps suggest that the doctor should be examining those who definitely ARE making them!

As I said, you can't take these allegations as the complete truth without hearing them yourself from the horses mouth, but you must agree that it doesn't sound particularly good, especially on the back of comments this week from the likes of Jim Duffy.

Everyone keeps reminding us that we shouldn't be too down about things because we're in a better position that we were under Chris Robinson and we're second in the league having won a trophy last season. However I feel this is missing the point somewhat. We have a first team squad capable of far more than we're getting from it at the moment and if we're honest, probably a lot more could have been achieved last season had various other factors not hindered their progress.

Hearts have to be seriously careful that they don't end up losing all the good talent they currently have, as well as putting off any prospective players, managers or coaches who are genuinely top drawer from joining the club in the future. There is no doubt we have the basis of an excellent set-up at Tynecastle, but there are things going on there that need sorted out pronto, otherwise we could easily end up back where we were a couple of years ago.