Reprieve for Gordon as Hearts make him captain

CRAIG Gordon has been confirmed as Hearts' captain in succession to Steven Pressley, the club's head coach, Valdas Ivanauskas, said yesterday. The goalkeeper still faces a disciplinary hearing next week after he and Paul Hartley supported the former skipper's statement about unrest at Hearts, but that hearing now appears to be little more than a formality.

"The captain from today is Craig Gordon," Ivanauskas said yesterday. "He is a young boy, but he is a big name in Scotland and also other countries.

"I think it's good for the team, for the supporters, for everybody. He deserves it. The captain in every team is very important and it is my opinion on him."

Gordon took over the armband for the first time last week, when Hearts defeated Motherwell to end a nine-game run without a win. His longer-term appointment is not only an indication of his greater patience throughout what has been a trying time for many of the players at the club, but also a sign that the management are well aware of his financial worth.

While they may find the time is right to realise several million for the Scotland No1 in the summer, Hearts have no pressing need to sell Gordon when the transfer window opens at the turn of the year. As Ivanauskas previously said that a Scot should be the captain of the club, it was only logical that the appointee should be the one remaining native who is sure of his place in the side.

Hartley, meanwhile, is available for selection today and remains a part of the squad, according to Ivanauskas. Nothing has been said by either player or club since a disciplinary hearing on Thursday, but Ivanauskas sounded hopeful of holding on to the midfielder's services for a while longer at least.

"Paul Hartley stays in the team and in the club," the coach continued. "He's in the squad [for today's home match against Aberdeen].

"He had positive discussions with the management of the club and is still staying in the club. Paul is important and I have no problem with him.

"Maybe now Paul is unhappy with his game, but I know how good he is. He has a contract for one and a half years. He is important for my side and he stays here."

Given Hearts' success last week when Hartley was out because of an SFA suspension, Ivanauskas would have had a good case for naming him among the substitutes. But, with Julien Brellier unfit for this afternoon's match, Hartley and Bruno Aguiar would be a logical pairing in central midfield. Ivanauskas earlier talked of hoping to minimise the changes to a team which has been tinkered with too much this season, and if he recasts the back four in order to move Marius Zaliukas into midfield instead of Hartley he will be contradicting himself.

Whatever happens this afternoon, though, the Scot's future at Hearts could still be limited to just a few weeks. Ivanauskas' estimation of Hartley's abilities is no doubt sincere, but Vladimir Romanov, the majority shareholder at Tynecastle, showed no sign of heeding similar sentiments by the coach a couple of weeks ago, when the subject was Pressley.

Ivanauskas refused yesterday to explain what had happened to the former captain, who left Hearts by "amicable" agreement last week after being suspended indefinitely from the team by the club's "director of infrastructure", Pedro Lopez. Nor would he offer an opinion of his own on how the club dealt with the centre-back, offering instead a bland tribute.

"Elvis is a big player, a big man, a gentleman, an intelligent guy. He was a big man here in the club, but we have club, we have team. I can understand Elvis was a big man in the club, but we need fans to stay behind the team."

Ivanauskas appeared confused when asked several times if he thought it right to ask fans to stay behind the team without receiving any coherent explanation for the axing of Pressley. Eventually, David Southern, Hearts' head of communication, intervened to say that the club and Pressley had signed a confidentiality agreement. But details of that agreement remain confidential, and it is therefore unclear what Ivanauskas could and could not say.

Asked how he got on with Lopez, the man who is in charge of the day-to-day running of Hearts, Ivanauskas laughed. "It is private relationship," he said. "Normal work relationship."

The club hierarchy's hope is that the appointment of Gordon will help them restore something more like a normal relationship with the support. What they really need, however, is a run of good results to convince the bulk of that support that there is any coherent footballing plan underlying their actions.

Taken from the Scotsman