IT'S ROVER AND OUT FOR HEARTS COACH

HEARTS are facing fresh turmoil with coach John McGlynn set to quit Tynecastle and take over as boss of Raith Rovers.

The Division Two club want the Jambos first-team coach to replace Craig Levein and yesterday opened talks with the Tynecastle side.

McGlynn has agreed to the move to Stark's Park and discussions will continue between the sides as Raith bid to secure his release, although Hearts rate him highly and want him to stay.

If all goes well the switch could be sealed over the weekend and he will take up his first managerial post in senior football on Monday. McGlynn is likely to be in the dugout at

Tynecastle for the last time tomorrow when Rangers visit and his departure will be a devastating blow to the players at Hearts.

The 44-year-old has been at Tynecastle for a decade and has been a trusted confidante of the players throughout the turbulent Romanov era.

McGlynn has stepped up as interim boss on three occasions and his departure will leave goalkeeping specialist Jim Stewart as the only English native speaker working with the first-team squad.

Raith, whose chairman David Sinton resigned yesterday to pursue other business interests, refused to comment while Hearts and McGlynn were also keeping tight-lipped.

The Jambos have also been linked with a takeover by an Edinburgh business consortium but it isn't being taken seriously at this stage.

Edinburgh plumber Pat Munro claims he wants to buy out Romanov, almost two years after he and pal Fred Wood were linked with a move to purchase the shares of Chris Robinson.

They failed to bring a concrete offer to the table then and Hearts insiders are dismissing their latest plans, which they have tried to cloak in anonymity.

Romanov has not received any offer for the club, nor would one be welcomed as he has no intention of selling.

Munro and Wood are not even known as corporate backers of Hearts and scepticism remains they could even raise a fraction of the £30million needed to buy out the Lithuanian banker.

The duo headed a consortium of investors from as far a field as Russia, Iceland and Switzerland in January 2005 which put together a last-ditch attempt to rival Romanov.

Speaking at the time, Wood said: "As soon as the money is in place we can make a move. The money is coming from various places, Russia, Iceland and Switzerland.

"But they are only investors. They would have nothing to do with the club. The club would be run by local people, there wouldn't be foreign people coming in and interfering."

Meanwhile, Lithuanian Federation president Liutauras Varanavicius has written an angry letter to BBC Scotland after he was quoted out of context and appeared to suggest Romanov would sell Scottish rebels, including Steven Pressley.

He said: "I am appalled at the way in which an answer to a question related directly to the alleged dressing-room statement made by Vladimir Romanov at Riccarton over two weeks ago has been used to somehow suggest it was connected to this week's Hearts team selection story.

"People have suggested to me, in the past, the BBC seem to have a problem with the Lithuanian involvement at Hearts and I am afraid this week's situation seems to give some level of credence to those who wish to embellish what I am sure is nothing more than a good conspiracy story."

Taken from the Daily Record