A local newspaper has been serialising the forthcoming book called 'Believe', which focuses on the dramatic events at Tynecastle last season and the latest teaser confirms several rumours of the time that no-one has ever officially commented on until now. It seems that the much talked-about confidentiality clause was only ever verbal: nothing was ever signed, so people are free to talk about their version of events as they do in this book.

It's quite telling therefore, that many of those involved in the controversy, most notably Burley and Romanov, chose never to publicly air their side of things. I always suspected that there was something to lose on both sides by having such an agreement in place and it now appears that was the case. In a nutshell, Romanov and Burley never saw eye-to-eye from day one and in the end Romanov was looking for any excuse he could find to sack the manager. Apparently when then-Chief Executive Phil Anderton casually mentioned at a board meeting that there had been mutterings in the media about Burley and an alleged alcohol problem, this was the opportunity he was looking for to take action. Despite the media saying they had evidence of Burley's alcoholic exploits (something that never came to fruition), the players confirmed that nothing was wrong from their point of view and they were more than happy with him there. However Romanov's mind was made up and after a series of further heated exchanges, there was only ever going to be one conclusion. The confidentiality protected both Burley's reputation (even if the rumours were false, mud like that can stick) and also Romanov's, because Burley could easily have come out and told everyone what working for him was like.

Now this is probably the sort of conflict that goes on in workplaces everywhere, but what galls me the most about this are the reasons that Burley and Romanov could not form a decent working relationship. Many things were quoted, but the most worrying for me were the following:

1) Burley was asked consistently to play the Lithuanian players as they were to be in the shop window for potential buyers. This would explain the current Hearts side slowly becoming an all-Lithuanian team perhaps?

2) Romanov was unhappy that Mikoliunas was not playing often enough and felt that he should have been playing more than Skacel, a player who ended up being Hearts' top scorer last season.

3) Romanov being unhappy with the style of football Burley's team was playing. This was despite them taking the league by storm, playing great football in most people's eyes and going on a record run of unbeaten matches.

4) Romanov's apparent jealousy of Burley and Phil Anderton's popularity with the fans. Something that could explain his dislike of Julien Brellier.

There are many other things that worry me about the way that Romanov runs the club, but the main one affects absolutely everything: that is the fact that the guy thinks he can manage a football club himself. He is, as many people have suggested, playing 'Championship Manager' with Hearts! And the thing is, he's perfectly entitled to do it as it's now effectively HIS club to do as he pleases with. This includes undermining any employee of his, because he can control petty much anything at the club. If anyone does something he doesn't agree with, he gets rid of them, or so it seems. It was definitely the case with Burley and that single decision could be one of the most regrettable ones every made by the club. Sadly we'll never know.

As former player Lee Johnson, a Graham Rix signing who barely lasted a few months at the club last season said: 'the club was on the verge of something really special and it's all gone downhill'. I couldn't have put it any better myself, Lee.

Taken from the Scotsman