Time is running out

Roddy Thomson

LIKE thirsty men fighting valiantly in the desert, the Hearts players are finally waking up to the mirage that may yet be Vlad imir Romanov’s arrival as Tynecastle Tsar. John Robertson’s side travel to Ibrox today, where they aim once more to drink from the fountain of promise – and prolong their hopelessly under-funded Old Firm chase with another famous away victory after Joe Hamill’s winner at the end of last season.

But it is what happens tomorrow – or in the case of more than a few core contributors, what does not happen – that is uppermost in these players’ thoughts. Whatever the result in Glasgow, a Murrayfield ticket sales boom for the Ferencvaros tie notwithstanding, the Basel feelgood factor may not last as long as hoped within the Hearts dressing room.

Tomorrow is, of course, the first day in the rest of this Hearts team’s life, and that life may be shorter than anyone imagined. Romanov, still in Glasgow of all places, will finally break his silence on his intentions this evening. But for every bumper Mark de Vries deal on the table, albeit some might still say forlorn, others may find nothing but scraps.

Craig Levein applied the Martin O’Neill school of expediency to his management of the club, leaving a full 11 players out of contract at the end of the season – including notable leaders in De Vries, Alan Maybury, Steven Pressley and Phil Stamp. Robertson has to cut his deal with Romanov and new director of football Anatoly Byshovets (who studied the official party in action in Switzerland last week) before he can reach agreement with anyone outwith that quartet.

Fortunately for the fans, the new political realities around Hearts have not distracted these players unduly in recent weeks. Their time growing together – and the desire to show their Uefa Cup qualification was the natural product of hard work at home and abroad – has allowed them to focus, despite the uncertainty brought by the change of regime. But as the start date for contract talks finally arrives – with Robertson restricted to loose chats over player feelings – the fear their efforts may not all be rewarded commensurately is clearly taking hold.

Their captain, Pressley, would simply wish to retain his seniority and happy working environment, while newer faces like Michael Stewart, who wants to fulfil the promise he amply displayed at the St Jakob’s Stadium on Thursday night, is already playing to determine his future in the game every time he makes an appearance. Elsewhere within this band of unlikely brothers, though, the picture is substantially less clear.

Stamp finally said as much in the aftermath of Basel. A seasoned Premiership player at Middlesbrough, Stamp’s fitness has restricted his input this season and, for the first time since Levein gambled Antti Niemi’s transfer fee on him, left a question mark against his future role. Romanov may have Edinburgh banking and other business interests at the back of his Hearts mind, but Byshovets surely has other players waiting on the end of his phone.

For people like Stamp, who time and again delivered amid the off-field chaos during the lengthy countdown to Chris Robinson’s departure, the procrastinatory school of neg otiating has to end now. Never shy to speak his mind, Stamp was simply articulating an agreed position discussed among the full Hearts Bosman XI – and it could be summed up as “show us the money right now”.

The second-half substitute said: “The main thing was getting Thursday out of the way but I think people are sitting down throughout the week to sort out their futures.

“We’ll just need to see what the club’s up to because obviously there are new people set to come in with Mr Romanov due to take over.

“It’ll be entirely up to him I would think, but there’s a lot of players at this club and if you didn’t keep most of them it would cost a lot of money to replace them. It all depends on how much money this fella’s got. If everything was all right then I’d certainly sign because I’m happy here – very happy.

“But we have a lot of players out of contract – and the question might be whether the budget is going to be different enough to keep people like De Vries and Maybury here. To replace them will cost a lot of money. I couldn’t put figures on it, but we have spoken as a group and we all want to stay together, that’s the main thing.

“We feel we’re the third best team in the SPL and with the new man coming in and the money he’s talking about putting in, it can only help and strengthen the club. Right now, we’ve just got to wait and see – but things have got to be done really quickly because it’s January soon and players are going to be looking elsewhere, to be quite honest.”

Stamp suggested that the Basel game deserves to go down as Hearts’ best-ever European result, which might be stretching it a bit for those with longer mem ories down Gorgie way, but was fair in terms of the obvious comparison with Bordeaux. He was also right to point out no other British team faced as tough a draw in the Uefa Cup groups, which means he is relaxed about probably missing out on Middlesbrough. “I think Real Madrid could be dragged into the Uefa Cup so I think that could be even bigger,” he said.

The question today, however, is whether Hearts can rise to Ibrox so soon after such a momentous and draining European away tie. And while Stewart specifically might be entitled to think he could yet convince Rangers they were wrong not to sign him in Austria during the pre-season – and Robertson certainly wants to be the one who can finally harness the midfielder’s un doubted overall ability – such important talks will have to wait until more pressing matters are dealt with.

Robertson does have Paul Hartley and Patrick Kisnorbo fresh and back among his options after their Uefa suspensions. Perhaps slightly surprisingly given Hartley’s undisputed status as King of Hearts this season, the pair were left at home this week and they will be eager to reclaim their central midfield berths on the south side of Glasgow.

Others, such as Andy Webster, who remains under contract but who is attracting ever more serious suitors from London, retain the desire to perform at their peak no matter whether the test stems from Dado Prso or Basel’s still mercurial Christian Gimenez.

After admitting he feigned a head-knock after a bang on the cheek late in the game – risking the same mini-hail of coins aimed at Pressley when he was slow to put a misplaced boot back on – Webster insisted: “It’s another big game on Sunday, but they’re easy to get up for. It’s easy to motivate yourself to play at places like Ibrox.

“We went there at the end of last season and beat them 1-0. People say it was a meaningless end-of-season game but try telling that to players – it’s all about winning. It will be difficult because they’re on a great run – 15 games unbeaten – but it’s not something we’ll fear.”

Hamill even fancies he might unlock a few lost memories of his winning part last time out, admitting he didn’t know how to celebrate when stealing in on a passback to confirm a miserable end to the Rangers careers of Emerson, Nuno Cap ucho and the De Boer twins.

But most of all, the Hearts fans just want to know their best team in a decade are staying together, at least long enough for the Russian revolution to declare its hand properly. Which is putting it mildly where the men whose futures remain uncertain are concerned.

Taken from the Sunday Herald