Ivanauskas ready for return to good times

The Lithuanian was at Tynecastle yesterday for the first time since October 23 when, after a meeting with Vladimir Romanov, the majority shareholder, he returned to his homeland to recover from a stress-related illness.

Hearts failed to win any of their six matches under stand-in coach Eduard Malofeev, the stand-in coach, during the absence of Ivanauskas and, after a defeat at home to Rangers two weekends ago, around 200 fans protested against Romanov’s handling of the Edinburgh club.

Ivanauskas, though, seemed in good spirits yesterday and said of Saturday’s game away to St Mirren: “Not much work is needed to be done. The only thing we need is three points and we are looking forward to the game. I want players to get some self-confidence and get the pleasure of playing again.”

Asked why he had returned to a post that had caused him health problems, Ivanauskas said: “This is my job. I know it’s going to be hard but I am confident I will be here all season.

“I feel very well. I needed that time off for personal reasons but now I’m back and I feel good. I was always confident that I would come back. The doctors told me not to follow events and I only saw two games — against Celtic and Rangers — and the results weren’t the best.”

The situation at Tynecastle worsened during Ivanauskas’s enforced leave when Steven Pressley, the captain, Craig Gordon and Paul Hartley called a press conference in which they revealed “significant unrest” in the dressing-room.

Amid the general confusion, the club announced the appointment of another Lithuanian coach, Eugenijus Riabovas, who had been due to start at Tynecastle before the end of the month.

Then Alex Koslovski, the sporting director, branded supporters racist for booing Lithuanian players during the defeat by Rangers before retracting the accusation.

Whether some of yesterday’s questions were lost in translation or Ivanauskas chose to sidestep is a moot point. One was the issue of whether Riabovas would be joining him at Tynecastle in the future.

“At the moment, I am the head coach and we are looking to get three points against St Mirren. Stephen Frail will be my assistant coach from today,” Ivanauskas said.

Romanov appeared to go some way to placating the angry Hearts fans when he made a statement at the weekend saying that he wants “70 per cent” of the club’s players in the future to be Scottish.

Ivanauskas was reluctant to get involved. “Every good team has a lot of foreign players,” he said. “You see that in Germany, Italy and England and it is normal.

“It doesn’t matter about 70 per cent or 50 per cent, we need good players and, for me, it doesn’t matter which country they come from. I was in the same situation when I played in Germany and it is difficult.

“But every player has the chance to play for Hearts this season and they all have a future here.”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk