Hearts switch coach again as Pressley turns up the heat

Ewan Murray
Wednesday November 15, 2006
The Guardian

Hearts have announced that they will replace their caretaker manager Eduard Malofeev with the FBK Kaunas head coach Eugenijus Riabovas after Sunday's Scottish Premierleague meeting with Rangers.

The latest in a string of bizarre moves at Tynecastle, which comes with the fulltime manager Valdas Ivanauskas on sick leave for an indefinite period, means Riabovas will be the seventh man in charge of Hearts in the 21 months of Vladimir Romanov's time as owner.

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Hearts have not won any of their four games under Malofeev and the 64-yearold will return to Latvia to complete his Uefa Pro licence qualification.

Malofeev may yet be followed out of Tynecastle by Steven Pressley, the club captain. Pressley decided he was not mentally prepared to lead his team into Monday's match at Falkirk amid uncertainty surrounding his future as captain. The defender had previously made unfavourable comments about the club's management.

Pressley had pointed to "significant unrest" and splits within the dressing room, a matter which is understood to have come to a head in a row between players after the recent match against Dunfermline, during which the 33-year-old's suitability as captain was questioned by at least one Lithuanian player.

Hearts were unable to confirm yesterday whether or not Pressley retains the captaincy but the veteran defender, who has held together the playing staff through many turbulent periods during the past eight years, appears to have lost patience with the Romanov regime. A move to Dundee United, to work with the former Hearts manager Craig Levein, appears likely in January.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer