HEARTS ARE LIKE CIRCUS CAR WITH NO WHEELS AND DOORS BLOWN OFF SAYS JOHN MCGLYNN

COACH John McGlynn walked out of Hearts on Friday and looked back on a club lying in bits - but he insists it CAN be rebuilt.

And the newRaith Rovers boss has pleaded with Vladimir Romanov to reconcile with skipper Steven Pressley and his other Scotland stars NOW before it's beyond repair.

McGlynn, who took charge of his first game at Stark's Park yesterday, has been the one constant through two years of turmoil and six bosses coming and going in the Tynecastle dugout.

But after an emotional farewell to the stars he has schooled from boys to men in 11 years with the club, he has finally opened his heart on the the damage done and how he believes wounds can be healed.

Only if there's action, though - something he admits he has seen none of since Pressley, Craig Gordon and Paul Hartley revealed the dressing room unrest crippling the club.

McGlynn said: "Elvis told me that morning he was going to do it. Did I counsel him not to? His mind was made up.

"He had taken enough so there wasn't much I could say. He has handled so much over the years, particularly the last two.

"But there was a straw that broke the camel's back and he had to get it off his chest. Elvis was looking for a bit more dialogue after it but that hasn't happened unfortunately.

"It needs to happen to get some of the things out in the open, to clear up the issues the players want cleared up.

"They need to get things back on track. It will take them to meet and voice their opinions but more importantly to listen.

"They can't be bullish. They have to take things in and work out what the proper action is to get Hearts back where they should be."

And McGlynn reckons he can pinpoint the start of the destruction back to January.

He said: "Players are fairly easy to keep happy. Last season everyone was enjoying things because we were winning. But other things happened, like so many players coming in January and the dressing-room becoming massive.

"We had a great spirit that had grown over the season but when you put so many different players into a dressing-room you lose it.

"So that might have been the start of, not our downfall necessarily, but the unsettling of things.

"Since then there have been bits and pieces of the machine just falling off.

"The circus car where the doors blow off and the wheels fall off is as good a description as I can think of.

"But what it needs is for all the bits to be put back together.

"The leadership to fix it has to come right from the top and go right through the club.

"It is possible, even though there has been a fair amount of damage done - but it must be done quickly."

McGlynn knows a quality player and insists he hasn't liked what he has seen walk through the Tynecastle doors recently.

He said: "What would have taken us on? Three or four really good players coming in January.

"We had won the cup, qualified for Europe, but if we'd strengthened then we might have been better placed to strengthen again in the summer then have a real go at the Champions League qualifiers.

"But our signings haven't been of the quality needed to take us to the next level, although we're in a position now where things probably can't get much worse."

Hearts made a late bid to keep McGlynn - but he believes the time was right for him to make a name as a boss rather than a coach. And he insists he would have gone even if the picture had been clearer.

McGlynn said: "I never got to the point where I felt like chucking it.

"I've come through a lot and it makes you hardened to situations which should help me in my new role as well.

"Why should I feel intimidated by anything after what I've had to deal with?

"A manager sacked on the morning of a game. Then just to make it a wee bit more difficult we'll sack the chief executive and the chairman will resign!

"Things happened at Hearts I'll probably NEVER see again in football - really strange things.

"So what I've always told myself when anything has gone down in the last couple of years is: 'If I can handle this I can handle anything!'"

Taken from the Sunday Mail