Misunderstanding of his role is at root of Romanov's problem

HEARTS SAGA

THERE can be no clearer sign of an organisation in crisis than when a manager starts kicking out at customers for avoidable problems entirely of his own making. But that is the latest development in the crazy saga that is Heart of Midlothian Football Club under the stewardship of Vladimir Romanov.

Perhaps the root of his problems lie in a fundamental misunderstanding of his role - he may be the majority shareholder by some considerable distance, but even if he had 100 per cent of the shares he can never truly own what is a city institution. This is true of any owner, as former majority shareholder Chris Robinson will testify. While they can make day-to-day decisions, ultimately there is no club without the thousands of people who have been brought up to support it and in their absence there is only a group of players and some real estate. Third Lanark ceased to exist not just because a crooked owner ran it into the ground, but because support had dwindled to the extent that it could not rise from the ashes. Cathkin Park lies derelict to this day.

Yet on Sunday, the club's sporting director Alex Koslovski produced his own Gerald Ratner moment when he accused disgruntled supporters of racism because of their vocal criticism of the selection of two misfiring Lithuanians.

Many fans were dismayed that fellow supporters booed the players, rightly judging that it risked destroying their confidence, but they understood the frustration of having better players left out of the squad. Now right-thinking supporters will be angered by the suggestion that legitimate criticism can be dismissed as racism.

A pattern is beginning to emerge in that the Romanov regime hits out at any dissenting voices - managers and administrators have been sacked, players axed, a media blackout imposed and now the fans themselves stand accused. It simply cannot go on like this. Even Mr Romanov must surely understand that a business is not a business without customers.

The irony is that the more Mr Romanov attempts to micro-manage the situation the less control he has. He cannot change the team's fortunes if he is the one picking the team. Cutting the club off from the media does not mean publicity will improve, it only means the media can set its own agenda and if anything the publicity gets worse.

When there was a benevolent owner bank-rolling a quality team, a top quality manager whose side was unbeaten, and a professional chief executive who packed the stadium, Hearts supporters could see the Promised Land. It is no surprise that feelings are running so high when that vision of what might have been is being so cruelly snatched away when it could all be so different.

Mr Romanov still has the ability to turn things around and to regain the fans' backing and affection. He still has a talented group of players, he still has an excellent team of administrators who are there to help him and he still has thousands of dedicated supporters who want the team to succeed as desperately as he does. All he needs is to let a good team manager manage - knowing who the manager is would be a start - and he can retain real power for when he really needs to use it.

Perhaps he should learn from the man who made his own fortune possible, Mikhail Gorbachev. He recognised that the Soviet Union was crumbling and that glasnost and perestroika was the way to avoid disaster. Now some of that openness and restructuring wouldn't go amiss at Tynecastle.

Taken from the Scotsman