Paulo Sergio's losing battle to bring continental style to Hearts

Some Hearts players have dubbed their new manager 'Mourinho'. It's not meant as a compliment

Ewan Murray

Paulo Sergio has swiftly discovered that even a derby victory does not extend a manager's honeymoon period. Hearts have not entered a period of discontent but there is palpable uneasiness about the current state of on-field affairs at Tynecastle.

The latest incumbent in the Hearts manager's office presided over a decent enough start to his tenure but flaws in Sergio's ideology have been exposed in Ayr and Perth. As Celtic prepare to visit Tynecastle on Sunday, there is little to suggest Hearts can offer the sort of rousing performance which saw them hand Neil Lennon's team a bloody nose in the corresponding fixture last season.

Already, there are reasonable questions about the former Sporting coach's suitability for his current role. Without being disrespectful, the obvious ineptitude of Hibernian and St Mirren helped Hearts towards two wins in three matches before Ayr bumped them out of the League Cup and St Johnstone cantered to a win over Sergio's team last weekend. As ever, defeat provided a better education than victory.

In the manager's defence, he may have simply been parachuted into the wrong movie. Vladimir Romanov, the Hearts owner, sought a change in playing style when removing Jim Jefferies in August. That move, whilst controversial, had a degree of merit; providing Romanov sourced a suitable replacement.

To implement the continental approach which Sergio wants to oversee, he simply needs players with superior technical quality to those presently at his disposal. It is up to Romanov to back up ideology with such resource.

Instead, Hearts have looked one‑paced and one-dimensional. Their chronic lack of attacking impetus in the St Johnstone loss was as eye-catching as the manager's inability to do anything about it.

Rather than adopt tactics which suit his playing staff, Sergio is guilty of a square pegs, round holes policy. When, as is the case at Hearts just now, a group of players are performing below their capability, it is the manager who must take responsibility.

Some of the Hearts squad, who remain unconvinced by this way of working, have christened the manager "Mourinho". It is not a compliment, merely a perception of Sergio's single-minded, verging on arrogant, attitude. Suggestions of discontent regarding constant double training sessions emanated from Hearts soon after Sergio's appointment. Whilst players routinely have a cheek to complain about hard work, an unhappy camp will never profit.

Celtic's vulnerability in central defence means Sergio should deploy John Sutton alongside Stephen Elliott in attack. Such a possibility is remote; Hearts offered Sutton on loan to Sunday's opponents, including others, before the last transfer window closed. The possibility of fielding two strikers at the one time seems alien to Sergio.

Six years ago, a Hearts team that was both direct and attractive had taken the SPL by storm. The contrast between that side and the listless one which appeared at McDiarmid Park last Sunday could not be more striking.

Romanov's end game at Hearts may come sooner than many would reckon. In late October, the latest set of papers will be submitted by the club to the City of Edinburgh Council in a bid to kickstart Hearts' quest for a new – or redeveloped – stadium. As there is no apparent possibility of extending Tynecastle by more than 1,700 seats because of official regulations, the prospect of the old ground being rebuilt is remote. Potential income against cost determine that.

Yet the problem Romanov is encountering is not dissimilar to that which vexed previous Hearts regimes. Basically, there is a chronic lack of alternative sites.

Hearts will seek council assistance in finding land for a "new" Tynecastle; if that is not forthcoming, there is a legitimate worry over how much longer Romanov will continue to bestow funding on the football club for no return. Despite cutbacks, Hearts' wage bill is still reckoned to be close to £8m.

Sergio has enough with which to concern himself without looking that far into the future. On the basis of recent history, let alone current form, he will have departed Edinburgh long before such matters come to a head in any case.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer