Celtic aim to heap more stress on Hearts

The pictures of Ivanauskas pumping the air with a clenched fist as he danced along the touchline were the defining images in every newspaper the following day. It seemed to symbolise everything. Hearts looked to be in robust health as did their title challenge and their was a hint of a new era in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague. How wrong can you be?

Three months down the line, the health of Ivanauskas is giving as much concern as his team. The Edinburgh club’s head coach intimated yesterday that he is not ready to return to duty, as planned, from his stress-free environment of a Lithuanian spa. If Hearts lose at Celtic Park today, there will be little left for him to revive whenever he returns. If he returns.

Defeat would cut Hearts 13 points adrift of the leaders. That would have been unthinkable back on August 6 for Vladimir Romanov, the owner, and the bulk of the 17,000 crowd who watched Hearts sweep Celtic off the pitch, despite the narrow scoreline and dramatic ending.

However, the off-the-field events at Tynecastle sowed the seeds of discord that have seen team unity broken, prompting a host of dropped points and elimination from the Champions League and Uefa Cup.

Celtic, in contrast, drew strength from that day. If Hearts are looking at Celtic hoping to discover a vulnerability after the 3-0 taming by Benfica in midweek, they might consider that when Gordon Strachan’s side lost at Tynecastle, they embarked on an unbeaten run in the Premierleague and when Manchester United interrupted it at Old Trafford, Strachan’s team simply got back on the cycle again and put together a sequence of nine wins until that night in Lisbon.

Ivanauskas will have a medical examination in Kaunas next Tuesday afternoon to determine his readiness for resuming the reins. Eduard Malofeev, the veteran Russian who has filled in as acting head coach, will be in the dugout in Glasgow today.

“I’m feeling better but not 100 per cent,” Ivanauskas said yesterday, when asked if he would be keeping to his two-week sabbatical. “I’m not ready yet. I don’t think I will be back as early as next week. I have a medical examination next Tuesday and I will know more after that.

“I could return after that but I need the doctors’ opinions. They say I am OK and looking good but we need time. My health is very important because it was so much stress last time. I hope my health improves soon and I hope then I can come back.”

Strachan knows that the events of Lisbon make his own club unwell, so the Celtic manager has banished all talk of Benfica as he prepares to face Hearts.

“We have told the players it is done, over,” he said. “We spoke to them for about five minutes. We have no time to reflect on that. When we have got time, we’ll get the head up next week and we’ll take in the Hearts game and the game we have just played, digest it, analyse it.

“I think we handled the defeat at Manchester United by coming back with a win against Dunfermline. The attitude in the first half of that game was first class, probably our best performance after a Champions League game. At the moment we seem to be handling coming back from Champions League games but it’s a new experience for us.”

Strachan dismissed suggestions that Hearts pose less of a danger amid their recent turmoil. “There has been a lot of press coverage on Hearts over the last two years but they always seem to give everybody a hard game,” he said. “What matters is the players.

“They’ve got good players and guys that have been strong-minded. I’m an admirer of their players. Not just as players but as men. I admire the way they have handled themselves.

“We cannot slacken off [because Celtic are ten points ahead]. Whether you are behind or level with people or quite a way in front, there is a different way of trying to handle it,” he said.

Malofeev insisted yet again that he is in charge of team selection — something Julien Brellier would refute — and spoke of his concern for Ivanauskas. “While I am here as the head coach, I will pick the team,” Malofeev said. “It is the head coach who manages the team, Romanov’s role is more on the financial side. I will take advice from other coaches and medical staff, but I have the last word. I am well qualified, experienced and an educated person and I would find the words to say, ‘Thank you, Vladimir, but I am the manager and I will pick the team.’

“I respect Valdas very much and he is like my own child because I have a daughter the same age as him. But we will see what is going to happen.”

Steven Pressley, the captain, admits the uncertainty surrounding Ivanauskas and the club needs to end soon. Asked if he thought Ivanauskas would return to Scotland, Pressley said: “I am unsure. I don’t think anything has been made 100 per cent clear so I can’t comment on that. But something needs to be resolved one way or the other. It needs to be made clear whether or not Valdas will return.”

The man who led the player revolt by going public with the Hearts “dressing-room unrest” has not had his meeting with Romanov yet. “I have not had a chance to speak to Mr Romanov yet, but, hopefully, in the weeks ahead, I will get the chance to sit down and discuss things.

“We want to move together and move the club forward in the right direction and I believe that will happen. There are a number of issues that I made clear the players aren’t happy about.

“But they could be quite easily resolved and, when they are resolved, I am sure this club will move forward hand-in-hand with Mr Romanov. People must understand this is not Mr Romanov’s sole business interest, he is a very busy man.”

BETTING PAYOUT

PADDY POWER, the bookmakers, have vowed to pay out on Celtic as Bank of Scotland Premierleague champions this season if they defeat Heart of Midlothian today to open up a 13-point gap at the top.

A Paddy Power spokesman said: “With Celtic flying, it will be the first pay-out of the season by any bookie for any division and it’s a promise to our punters they’ll be quids in if they win. We know and the punters know the Premierleague race is all but over, so the winnings are better off back in people’s pockets.”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk