| Back to all reports for 25/11/2006 | ||||
| <-Page | <-Team | Sat 25 Nov 2006 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0 Hearts 0 | Team-> | Page-> |
| <-Srce | <-Type | Herald ------ Top | Type-> | Srce-> |
| Eduard Malofeev | <-auth | ROB ROBERTSON | auth-> | Iain Brines |
| 14 | of 071 | ----- ----- | L SPL | A |
Ivanauskas close to Hearts returnROB ROBERTSON November 25 2006 Valdas Ivanauskas, the Hearts head coach on a leave of absence, flew into Scotland yesterday with club owner Vladimir Romanov and is expected to resume his role with the first team on Monday. Ivanauskas may even watch today's match against Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Tynecastle with Romanov but will let caretaker coach Eduard Malofeev prepare the team. Ivanauskas had been off for more than three weeks with a stress-related illness but has been given the go-ahead to resume his head coach role. The Hearts supporters will also be hoping his reappearance will add a a level of normality to the Tynecastle dressing room after weeks of turmoil. A Hearts source said: "There has been so much going on that having Valdas back will be a big boost to the dressing room. He was a popular manager and when he was away from his job having caretaker coaches in charge who didn't speak English, had been a real problem. "With John McGlynn leaving the club to join Raith Rovers it was important there was some sort of continuity in the coaching staff and having Valdas back brings that continuity. "The situation with Elvis [Steven Pressley] has still to be sorted out and hopefully Valdas can help ensure that Steven remains at the club and gets the captaincy back." It will be interesting to see the reaction Romanov receives from Hearts fans when he turns up at Inverness today. It will be his first appearance in Scotland since Pressley, Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon, read a statement outlining their concern at his running of the club. It has also emerged that a group of supporters will meet Romanov this evening when they will spell out their concerns over the way Pressley has been dropped from the starting eleven. Alex Koslovski, the Hearts sporting director, meanwhile, has apologised to the Hearts supporters after accusing them of being discriminatory to the Lithuanian players. After Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Rangers, the Tynecastle official was critical towards fans who booed Saulius Mikoliunas and Nerijus Barasa, intimating that they were racist. Hearts supporters' groups condemned Koslovski's comments and the interpreter admits he was wrong to use such words. "I apologise for the comments made last week after the Rangers game," he said. "I didn't intend to but the players felt hurt from the reaction from our supporters. "You always need to be calm and analyse a situation and that is why I'm saying sorry. High emotions help no-one." Koslovski is, though, still adamant the supporters are wrong to single out certain players for criticism. Speaking at the club's Riccarton training base yesterday, Koslovski produced statistics on a sheet of paper which he claims proves Barasa and Mikoliunas make credible contributions to games. He added: "Nerijus Barasa, in the last game, completed 25 passes, made 13 tackles and 15 headers. This performance matches Christophe Berra, Ibrahim Tall and Marius Zaliukas. It's more or less similar performances but these players have different nationalities." Koslovski also confirmed that Pressley was in the squad for today's trip to the Highlands but was unwilling to reveal whether or not he would make the starting line-up. But he did say: "We expect to see him very soon. Everyone has a right to ask him whatever he likes." Charlie Christie, the Inverness Caley Thistle manager, may not have the problems of Hearts, but his midfielder Richie Hart has signalled a willingness to leave on loan in the January transfer window. Despite his side's promising form, Inverness have never beaten Hearts on home soil but Christie insisted: "We know we can pose Hearts problems, there's no doubt about that, but we will have to be at our best."  Taken from the Herald |
||||
| 