Hearts 0 - 0 Livingston

ROB ROBERTSON at Tynecastle October 04 2004

VLADIMIR Romanov, the man who has struck a deal to buy a 19.8% stake in Hearts, may not have been at Tynecastle yesterday but his big-time promises for the club were the talk of the stadium. The Lithuanian wants to clear Hearts' £19.1m debt by the end of the year, which would be achieved by selling the famous ground to Cala Homes for £22m.

He has also promised to invest £10m to buy new players and dreams of "building a beautiful, big new stadium."

So far, so good but one part of the Lithuanian's grand plan will not sit easily with Craig Levein, the Hearts coach, or their supporters. Romanov, who also controls FC Kaunas in Lithuania, is reportedly keen on Anatoly Byshovets, who is a "consultant" with that club, becoming "director of football" at Tynecastle. Byshovets, who won Olympic gold for the USSR at the 1988 Seoul Games and coached the Independent States of the old USSR (CIS) at Euro 92, will not take kindly to a role on the sidelines.

"Buying players will be the decision of the head coach and Byshovets," Romanov was quoted as saying. "They will look after the team."

It's baffling why Levein needs to have a "director of football" foisted on him. Two third-place league finishes in a row and qualification for the group stages of the UEFA Cup this season suggests he knows just what he is doing. As the old saying goes: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Byshovets' involvement with Hearts, which could happen as soon as December 8, is a worrying part of Romanov's plans, and Levein claimed he had still to meet the Lithuanian or any of his representatives.

"There is no point in me speculating about what might happen. I don't know what he is going to do and will have to wait and see," Levein said.

Levein has put together a quality starting XI, although as events at Tynecastle showed yesterday, the £10m Romanov has promised to strengthen his squad will be most welcome.

There were few chances for either side with the best ones coming from set-pieces. Jason Dair had the ball in the net direct from a free kick after 27 minutes but had one of those Homer Simpson moments when he realised it was an indirect free kick. D'oh!

Afterwards, Alan Preston, the Livingston coach, said he felt the referee, Charlie Richmond, had made a mistake. "He did not tell our players the kick was indirect," said Preston. "He was even standing behind Jason when he took the kick and I think he made a wee mistake."

With Berti Vogts in the crowd, Craig Gordon staked a claim for a Scotland starting place with a superb save from Craig Easton. Hearts replied with Dennis Wyness wasting a great opening by shooting straight at Roddie McKenzie in the visiting goal.

Even when Mark de Vries came on in the second half, Hearts struggled to get past the Livingston defence. Indeed, the West Lothian side almost claimed a winner when Burton O'Brien's free kick came back off the post.

The sterile fare on the pitch matched the atmosphere at Tynecastle. For the first time in at least two years there was no protest against the hated chief executive, Chris Robinson, who sold his shares to Romanov last week. It was a strange sight.

Indeed, the most animated spectator was Vogts, who was here to run the rule over Gordon, and Hearts' defensive pairing of Andy Webster and Steven Pressley, ahead of the World Cup double-header with Norway and Moldova.

The Scotland manager would have been heartened by the news that Pressley, the Hearts captain, has declared himself fit for both games, despite suffering from a virus that almost stopped him from playing yesterday.

"The virus has been taking it out of me after games but I'm ready to play for Scotland," said Pressley. "I will speak to Berti when the squad meets up and explain the situation. I have missed the last two Scotland games with a back injury and I want to be involved."

Taken from the Herald