Romanov shows signs of listening

A WEEK ago, at the launch of Believe!, a book about Vladimir Romanov's reign over Hearts, several prominent figures connected with the club spoke of their hopes and fears. The co-author and Hearts legend Gary Mackay, the former chairman Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, and Iain Macleod, a leading campaigner in the battle to keep the club at Tynecastle, all said Romanov had to realise the harm he was doing, to Hearts and to his own reputation, with actions such as the deselection of Steven Pressley.

When asked how hopeful they were that the club's majority shareholder would listen to anyone, they admitted he did not have much of a track record of backing down from confrontations or for taking advice from calmer colleagues. So the mood was bleak.

Between last Monday and yesterday, though, Romanov did indeed listen. He realised that many supporters were dissatisfied with the club for reasons other than the poor results which have seen Hearts fail to win since the first day of October. He understood that the small protest held after the Rangers game would be just the start unless he did something to make fans feel he still genuinely wanted the best for Hearts.

And so he acted. At a meeting with key supporters on Friday night, he said he had offered Pressley a coaching post, which did not exactly sound like he and the club captain were at loggerheads.

Then he said that in future the aim was to have the first team 70 per cent Scottish. And then today it was revealed by the returning Valdas Ivanauskas that Stephen Frail was to be his assistant coach, ensuring continued Scottish input at that level following the departure of John McGlynn to Raith Rovers.

The significance of Romanov's climbdown or giving of ground should not be lightly dismissed. A proud, self-made man, he is not readily given to admitting mistakes. Indeed, the concessions he has made in the past few days may even constitute the first time he has listened to public opinion.

This should be grounds for reasonable optimism among the Hearts support. The club's owner has understood, albeit belatedly, that he cannot keep acting in a dictatorial manner if he wants fans to keep spending their money on the team.

So, Romanov is to be commended for that, even if he has done no more than realise where his own self-interest lies. But, while good intentions lie behind the decisions he has made over the past few days, these decisions may arise from a partial misunderstanding of the problems at the club. And if he does not fully understand where the concerns of supporters are coming from, he will not discover a complete solution to the problems.

The statement about 70 per cent of players being Scottish, the praising of Pressley, and the appointment of Frail all point to a presumption that supporters were concerned about a diminution of native influence. Many perhaps were, but in the recent past Hearts have fielded sides with under 70 per cent Scots without provoking discontent among their fans.

For many of those who have become disenchanted about team selection and player recruitment, the issue is not about incomers per se, but about the quality of those incomers. There are specific worries about the number of Lithuanians being brought in, but that does not mean there is a dislike of them as a people. The fear is - or was - that Hearts could become a kind of graduate school for Kaunas players, and hence would no longer be perceived by the owner as a club in its own right. Those Lithuanians who merit their place in the team, such as Andrius Velicka, have quickly been embraced; others who have acquired a reputation for diligence and hard work, such as Marius Zaliukas, have also won the respect of many fans.

Others who have been less impressive in the first team have been less warmly received, but not just because of their form or lack of it. There is a belief that two or three Lithuanians, perceiving themselves to be favourites of Romanov's, have been instrumental in undermining discipline in the dressing room and at training.

If that is the case, commitments to quotas or the appointment of Scottish coaches will do nothing to get to the root of the problem. Only when there is a genuine belief that the Hearts team is selected on merit will truly positive morale be restored to the squad.

The return of Ivanauskas is a boost to the morale of the club, as the head coach is a popular and good-humoured individual who is obviously committed to his job. But it should be remembered that Pressley, when making his statement about the unrest, said the return of Ivanauskas was almost irrelevant to the search for a solution to the problem.

A win on Saturday against St Mirren will further improve the unity among the squad which was discernible again at Inverness three days ago. But in the longer term, what is required is the complete restoration of proper footballing values, and above all of the key principle: selection on merit.

The struggle has not been Scots against Lithuanians, for many of the other nationalities, not to mention some of the Lithuanians themselves, have been on the side of Pressley and his compatriots. The struggle has been about professionalism versus self-indulgence - and it is a struggle which, for all Romanov's welcome gestures, remains to be won.

Taken from the Scotsman