Romanov back on centre stage as sales loom

THERE WAS uncertainty last night about where Craig Gordon will be playing his football next month, but it appeared increasingly inevitable that it will not be with Hearts. Paul Hartley, the goalkeeper's international colleague, is expected to move to Rangers, possibly with Robbie Neilson, while the other two players named by Hearts as the subjects of bids, Michal Pospisil and Julien Brellier, could also have moved on by the time the transfer window closes on Wednesday night.

Pospisil has turned down the personal terms on offer from Bristol City, and no club has yet to go public with an interest in Brellier; both, however, have been labelled as surplus to requirements at Hearts, who have signed new midfielders and a striker this month. Neilson, who is recovering from a cartilage operation, will not command a large fee either, but the Edinburgh club can expect upwards of £1million for Hartley, and as much as five or six times that for Gordon, whose reported suitors include Arsenal, West Ham and Bayern Munich.

Contrary to one conspiracy theory on offer over the weekend, the departures of Hartley and Gordon are not being hastened to enable Vladimir Romanov, Hearts' majority shareholder, to pay Edinburgh City Council for land needed to redevelop Tynecastle. The agreement to purchase the land was made last week, but there is some way to go before cash changes hands.

Nor, as far as can be seen, is there any cash-flow problem in other areas of Romanov's group of companies. Certainly, the £5m or so to be raised from the sale of Hartley and Gordon is not to be sneezed at, but Hearts would have no qualms about holding on to either until the summer if they thought it advantageous to do so.

Instead, the clear-out will be the next stage in Romanov's construction of a first-team squad who owe their personal loyalty to him. As was made plain over the weekend in an interview he gave to the Belarussian newspaper PressBall, the businessman is obsessed with intrigue and betrayal. This mindset is not surprising given he spent most of his life as a citizen of a totalitarian regime, but translated to Scotland it appears woefully wide of the mark.

Romanov's obsessive fear of being undermined by his own employees first became evident here in 2005 when he got rid of George Burley, the manager who had taken Hearts to the top of the SPL. Far more recently, it was demonstrated in his reaction to the decision by Steven Pressley, with the support of Gordon and Hartley, to publicly criticise certain ways in which the club was being run.

The signing of confidentiality agreements makes it difficult to discern how keenly or how often Pressley tried to talk privately to Romanov about his concerns before going public, but to most outsiders the then Hearts captain's statement at Riccarton appeared to be born of a genuine concern for professional standards. For Romanov, however, it was simply a betrayal.

Asked by PressBall what caused the "conflict between senior Hearts players and [stand-in coach] Eduard Malofeev", Romanov replied: "There was no conflict whatsoever. There was a banal betrayal. Players sold themselves for the striped shirts they were promised; they decided that these were so valuable that they could allow themselves to behave the way they did."

Having made that accusation, Romanov then resorted to his usual habit of wilful vagueness when asked if he was referring to the colours of Celtic, the club which Pressley joined after being released from his contract by Hearts. "I don't know. To prison uniforms," he said.

In a further accusation of treachery, Romanov claimed it had only been possible for Valdas Ivanauskas, the head coach, to return from sick leave once the process of getting rid of certain players had begun. "There were issues that were impossible to resolve," he said. "It was this that was harming Valdas's health. Subsequently, it was impossible to normalise the situation unless we removed footballers who did not want to play against Celtic, Rangers and other teams."

It is true that Pressley asked not to play against Falkirk as he was "not mentally attuned" after learning of plans to get rid of him, but apart from that special instance there is no evidence whatsoever that either the erstwhile captain or any of his colleagues who are now on the way out of Tynecastle offered less than whole-hearted commitment against the Old Firm or any other club. Romanov, however, like some latter-day witchfinder-general, appears able to uncover devilish conspiracies wherever he goes.

Some people thought Burley was doing a pretty good job of challenging the Old Firm: through his acolytes, Romanov let it be known that the manager was trying to persuade some of the best players at Hearts to join him in moving south. Some people thought Phil Anderton was doing a good job in marketing the club to a wider audience: Romanov identified him as a jumped-up "wunderkind" who was hogging the limelight for himself.

And so it has gone on. Romanov hates it when others receive too much positive attention. He wants a situation at Hearts like he has at Kaunas, his Lithuanian club, where he is hailed as the great benefactor. There is no room for any other big personality.

The problem, however, is that what works in Lithuanian football will not necessarily work in Scotland, or in western European football in general. The Kaunas squad may be dutiful and diligent, and thankful to Romanov for what he has done for them, but Europe is a bigger and far more open market where paternalism is rightly seen as a barrier to progress.

When the going gets tough, football teams need big personalities. When you are two goals down with ten minutes to go, you need a Steven Pressley, refusing to admit defeat, or a Paul Hartley, defiant to the end. Whatever the technical virtues of the players who are coming as replacements for those two, they have yet to show that they have the same ability to triumph in adversity.

It was not so long ago that Romanov said he wanted the Hearts team of the future to be around 70 per cent Scottish. Leaving aside the issue of whether any such self-imposed quota is useful or desirable, it has to be said that the percentage is at present somewhat smaller, and heading in the opposite direction.

What is more, there is simply no evidence yet this season that Hearts are doing anything other than running to stand still - and running very expensively at that. Will Laryea Kingston be any better than Brellier? Will Gogita Gogua outshine Hartley? Has the Hearts squad improved at all since the departure of Burley around 15 months ago? Or when Craig Levein had them around the same position in the SPL on a fraction of the budget?

With the advances made in the plans for a new stand at Tynecastle, Romanov's good intentions for Hearts may seem more apparent than ever. With the imminent departure of two of the club's best players in recent years, however, his ability to deliver sustained progress on the field remains very much open to question.
Breaking of Hearts

GOING....

Paul Hartley

Once courted by Celtic, the Hearts vice-captain is believed to be the subject of a bid from Rangers. Now 30, Hartley is still Hearts' most creative player and has been an outstanding performer since being signed by Craig Levein on a Bosman free transfer from St Johnstone in 2003. Contracted until the end of next season. A Celtic supporter as a boy, Hartley might find it difficult to win over sections of the Rangers support. His cause won't be helped by a tabloid report last year in which it was claimed he bad-mouthed Ibrox fans in a 10-year-old interview with a Millwall fanzine. Hartley, who used to play for the south London club, denies the remarks.

GOING....

Craig Gordon

Hearts' chief asset, Gordon, 24, is contracted to the club until 2009. Fulham had a £2.5million bid for the Scotland goalkeeper rejected earlier this month and several other clubs have been keeping tabs on the Tynecastle captain. Keen to play in England, but it is thought his preference is to remain with Hearts until the end of the season.

GONE

Steven Pressley

Leader of the Riccarton Three and paid the price for his attack on Vladimir Romanov's running of Hearts. Had his contract cancelled "by mutual consent" last month just a few games short of triggering a one-year extension and testimonial. Joined Celtic.

Andy Webster

Fell out with Romanov when he refused to sign a new contract and was dropped from last season's Scottish Cup final side despite playing in all previous rounds. Joined Wigan in the summer but now on loan at Rangers.

Rudi Skacel

Also fell foul of Romanov when he turned down chance to extend his stay at Hearts. Now reunited with George Burley at Southampton.

Taken from the Scotsman