Malofeev embracing the Romanov bear hug

WHEN you are a new football manager addressing a pre-match media conference for the first time, there is a certain rule of thumb to fall back on: if in doubt, speak in cliches.

They're a great bunch of lads. I never realised what a big club this is. The fans deserve trophies and I'll do everything in my power to deliver. That sort of thing tends to be the response when the new man is asked about his first few days in harness with his latest employers.

Eduard Malofeev, however, is just a wee bit different. He neither speaks in the usual platitudes, nor enunciates in the normal, measured manner. And so, when at Riccarton yesterday he was asked how he had found his first week or so as acting head coach of Hearts, he became possibly the only current SPL manager to bark out a quotation from a British prime minister of the 1950s.

"I'm going to answer with the words of Harold Macmillan," the 64-year-old Russian said, or rather shouted, through an interpreter. "I feel like the lion who has taken the bear but he doesn't break his bones."

We smiled politely if bemusedly at this point, but then Malofeev himself burst out into a hearty laugh, so it was all right to join in without seeming rude. He laughs a lot, it transpired, and gesticulates wildly, and is obviously deeply passionate about football.

But let's be frank. He is also, shall we say, a touch eccentric, at least compared to the more pedestrian types who populate Scottish football. He is a great bear of a man with a taste for the dramatic - Ursine Welles, if you like - which may explain why he chooses to project his voice as if he were on stage in a theatre rather than behind a table in a white box of a room. That voice booming out of the speakers had many a Radio Scotland listener rolling around helplessly when he was interviewed after Hearts' 1-1 draw with Dunfermline last week.

And he has the old-style Soviet habit, shared by his employer, Vladimir Romanov, of making baffling utterances and refusing to elaborate. The Macmillan quote was a case in point. Apparently the actual remark came after the British premier met the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev for the first time in Russia, 1959, his exact words being: "I feel like a lion who discovers that the bear's hug doesn't break his ribs."

In that political context, it meant Macmillan was acknowledging Khrushchev's power while emphasising he could work with the man. In terms of Hearts, all it might conceivably mean was that Malofeev felt he had taken on a big task, but believed he could deliver. Thankfully, some of his conversation was altogether less cryptic, which is just as well given his new hands-on role. Although still titled "advisor on sports matters to the board", Malofeev has been acting head coach since Valdas Ivanauskas went off on sick leave almost a fortnight ago. In his new capacity, he has to talk as straightforwardly as he can to the players, and get his ideas across without being perceived as a rambling has-been. The fact he needs an interpreter to do so with most of the players cannot help. It was hard enough yesterday for journalists to have a coherent exchange of views in a relaxed and wide-ranging conversation: it must be a lot more difficult for the players to get the message when he is trying to put across a far more precise technical point.

At least it is easy to see that he has had a long and distinguished record as a coach. After a playing career of some distinction, he began coaching at the Dynamo Minsk youth academy in 1972. He subsequently took charge of the Dynamo Minsk senior team, then was head coach of the USSR and, much later, of Belarus as well. What is harder to comprehend, however, is his decision - just a year short of the usual retirement age for men in this country - to uproot himself and take on such a daunting new challenge under such a demanding taskmaster as Romanov. A partial explanation is that, having been employed by the Hearts owner elsewhere, he is working with a known quantity. Another possible reason is that Romanov may not be so demanding as others have found him: that he defers to Malofeev's seniority and greater knowledge, and therefore does not meddle in team selection as he is said to have done with previous Hearts coaches.

Malofeev himself insists that, while the businessman may become involved in discussions about selection, the final word is his own. "I don't know what happened here before," he said. "I've always been the head coach with no outside influences. I talk with everyone and the other coaches, but I've always had the last word. I heard that kind of gossip [about Romanov], but people who talk about that show their weakness. If they say Vladimir is picking the team, they are humiliating themselves. It shows they've got weakness. How can you imagine that I'm the head coach and someone else picks the squad? It never happens that the strongest player is put on the bench. It is never going to happen like that. I've been head coach at many teams. The best player never sits on the bench. Of course Vladimir influences the club. He is the owner of the club. He helps the club financially, brings in new managers, brings in new staff. Of course he gives advice. But I'm the head coach."

It is known that Ivanauskas, once he had selected a team after Friday training, was required to fax it to Lithuania. On at least two occasions this season, it has come back with four alterations. That was previously believed to show the extent of Romanov's involvement, but another explanation is that Malofeev - perhaps with the involvement of his associate, Hearts' "sporting director" Anatoly Korobochka - was the one deciding on the changes.

If that was the case, Malofeev's new hands-on role could actually be a good thing, removing one layer of confusion. Certainly, although there has been some disquiet over his supposedly antiquated coaching methods, he is convinced he has reintroduced some discipline to a dressing-room where certain players were less than wholly co-operative with their team-mates.

"I know what I need to bring to make the team more united, with all the players striving for the top. There should be no separations from anybody. We need to go on together. We need to lift the fitness level of the team as well. We need to erase indiscipline, not only for the training but also for the colleagues you work with, for the club, When you go to training you need to pay attention to a lot of stuff. But that sometimes doesn't happen. Players are absent-minded. I need to make them more attentive. I need to raise the responsibility of players on the pitch. I could talk and talk about this."

He could, but for exactly how long remains unclear. Ivanauskas said yesterday that he would need more than the initial two weeks away he was given, explaining that he would know more after a medical on Tuesday. Even if he does come back eventually, he may find himself playing second fiddle to Malofeev for some time.

Certainly, one advantage the older man has over Ivanauskas is his ability not to become too stressed by the politics of football. He did have a heart scare at the end of last year, but laughed it off yesterday by claiming it was "tactical".

And, in a tactic familiar to Romanov-watchers, he claimed the owner had not been serious when he threatened to sell off the team if they failed to beat Dunfermline. "Everybody likes joking. The way Vladimir said this expression, Vladimir loves the team and wants to fight for the team. Why can't we joke?"

Why not indeed? But there is a difference between having a joke and being a joke. Which verb best applies to Malofeev remains to be seen.

Taken from the Scotsman