Hearts' ex-Coach was offered break

VLADIMIR ROMANOV asked George Burley to go on a two-week sick leave just 24 hours before the Scot was sacked as manager of Hearts.

With current head coach Valdas Ivanauskas citing health issues for taking his own two-week sabbatical from the club on Monday, former Tynecastle chairman George Foulkes, pictured, has confirmed that Burley was offered an almost identical break exactly a year ago despite Hearts being top of the SPL at the time.

Foulkes claims that, in a meeting between Burley and Romanov, the former refused to step down from his position because he believed his health was not at risk, then found himself dismissed just hours later before a league match with Dunfermline.

"I have this strange feeling of deja vu, because that was the suggestion made by Mr Romanov the day before George parted company with Hearts," said Foulkes.

"George wasn't sick and so he knocked the suggestion back. I think that was part of the sequence of events which resulted in his downfall.

"We don't have the information to be able to question Valdas' health and I wouldn't want to do that. All I would say is that it's a strange co-incidence."

Ivanauskas held a meeting with Romanov in Kaunas on Monday, the result of which was the Lithuanian taking two weeks off to restore his health.

He has vowed to return to his position as head coach, which is presently being occupied by 64-year-old Russian Eduard Malofeev.

The acting head coach will have to do without Andrew Driver and Michal Pospisil for tomorrow's visit of Dunfermline. Neil McCann is a slight doubt and as of this morning Mirsad Beslija had still to train after suffering a head knock against Kilmarnock last week.

"The reactions to Mirsad's tests are telling us he isn't ready yet," said assistant coach John McGlynn. "Because it was a head knock, he has to go through a series of tests which monitor reactions and things."

Taken from the Scotsman