...but the celebrations quickly began to turn sour

WHEN Hearts lifted the Scottish Cup on May 13 it was supposed to herald a new beginning that would see them challenging for honours on a regular basis. But, just six months on, the club appears to be on the verge of implosion, writes MARK BONTHRONE.

Valdas Ivanauskas had taken over on a caretaker basis for the semi-final and was given the job full time just a month after the final victory against Gretna, but quickly found that life in the Tynecastle hot-seat wasn't going to be plain sailing.

Towards the end of August the Jambos were dumped out of the Champions League in the final qualifying round, thrashed 5-1 by AEK Athens over two legs. At the start of September Romanov first admitted to taking an interest in team affairs and also revealed he regularly voices his opinion on selection.

The pressure really began to mount on Ivanauskas at the end of September, however, when Hearts were eliminated from the UEFA Cup first round by Sparta Prague, a woeful display at Murrayfield costing them as they were beaten 2-0 on aggregate.

Domestically things weren't going much better and a 2-0 home defeat by Kilmarnock left the Gorgie outfit eight points adrift of SPL leaders Celtic. Just 48 hours later Hearts announced that Ivanauskas was stepping down from his role for two weeks due to "health reasons" although, almost a month later, he has still to return.

Russian coach Eduard Malofeev was installed on an interim basis but no sooner had this been revealed than Romanov was facing a player revolt. Club captain Steven Pressley, flanked by international team-mates Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon, made a statement to the media revealing there was "significant unrest" in the dressing room at the way the club was being run. Two weeks later Pressley was not in the Hearts team to play Falkirk after declaring himself not "mentally attuned" to take part after learning of a plot to strip him of his captaincy.

The next day Hearts released a statement saying that Eujenijus Riabovas, the head coach of FBK Kaunas, will become the club's seventh manager in just two years on the position on a temporary basis while Malofeev takes his UEFA pro-licence coaching badges.

Taken from the Scotsman