Malofeev remains in charge but Riabovas says he will return for six-month trial

EDUARD Malofeev, the club's interim head coach, will again be looking for his first win in charge of Hearts when the Tynecastle side face Inverness Caledonian Thistle at the Tulloch stadium on Saturday.

However, Malofeev's expected replacement, Eugenijus Riabovas has insisted he will soon be taking charge of the club - despite having said last week that he would take over on Monday this week.

Riabovas, the head coach of FBK Kaunas, has been in Edinburgh to observe the set-up at Hearts. FBK Kaunas are sponsored by Vladimir Romanov, who owns Hearts.

Riabovas is now said to have returned to Lithuania, where he has told the local media that he will return to Edinburgh by 1 December to begin a six-month trial as interim head coach.

Doubts have been expressed over whether Riabovas will ever be appointed head coach at Hearts, and the club refused to clarify the situation yesterday.

It was widely expected Malofeev would play no further part in first team affairs - he's been standing in for Valdas Ivanauskas, who is absent on sick leave - following Sunday's 1-0 loss to Rangers.

The veteran manager was supposed to take time out to complete the coaching badges needed to work in this country. His track record of no wins from five games is the poorest by any Hearts manager in the club's history.

Malofeev and departing first team coach John McGlynn, who will take over as manager of Raith Rovers later this week, conducted yesterday's training session.

When Riabovas spoke about his position last week, he said: "I think I am good enough to be the Hearts coach.

"I will start work on Monday after the match against Rangers. It is not a permanent position, only temporary."

If that was Riabovas' interpretation of the situation, it was not necessarily the timetable favoured by Hearts, as demonstrated by the fact that Monday has come and gone, and Malofeev remains in charge.

The timetable of 1 December for Riabovas to take over would overcome one serious complication facing Hearts. Malofeev is due to begin a two-match touchline ban on 2 December when Hearts face St Mirren in Paisley, after man-handling the fourth official in the recent 1-1 draw away to Falkirk.

Without the return of Riabovas, Hearts could end up with an interpreter in the dug-out at St Mirren, to relay instructions from Malofeev in the stand.

Meanwhile, Hearts midfielder Paul Hartley has called for Romanov to sort out the unrest at Hearts as soon as possible.

"We know there is a problem and the sooner it is sorted out the better. I think it's important that everything comes out in the open, that we start to talk." said Hartley, who along with Craig Gordon sat alongside club captain Steven Pressley last month to deliver a statement of no confidence in the way the Tynecastle club is being run.

"He has an interpreter, Alex Koslovski, who is now sporting director and who for some reason is coming out and talking about tactics.

"I don't think he's qualified but, all of a sudden, he wants to talk about tactics and about which players are not playing.

"We have to know what's going on and we have to have someone we can understand. Over the past few weeks, the players have not really understood the tactics.

Taken from the Scotsman