Foulkes backs Romanov to fulfil promises

HEARTS have undergone an unsettling time since the departure of John Robertson a month ago. A new manager has yet to be appointed, and the club's ability to attract a replacement of the calibre they want has been widely questioned.

George Foulkes, however, is confident that Hearts will soon make progress on that front and on the broader team-building plans made public by the biggest shareholder, Vladimir Romanov. Sceptics might suggest that, as club chairman, he would say that, but the former Member of Parliament has already seen enough of Romanov to be confident that the Lithuanian businessman will deliver on his promises.

What is more, Foulkes's advice for any Hearts supporters inclined to be fretful at present is to take a quick look back and recall how the club was staring into the abyss prior to Romanov's involvement, as the then chief executive Chris Robinson planned to sell Tynecastle and move to Murrayfield. Indeed, at one stage not long after Foulkes became chairman in April of last year it looked like the doomsday scenario was back on the cards for Hearts, as Romanov had walked away from the takeover talks. Although as no more than a token shareholder Foulkes was not a direct participant in those talks, he was instrumental in getting Romanov back to the table.

"The contact with Romanov preceded my involvement. It had cooled, if not gone completely cold," he recalled. "And so I was asked, as it happened, by not just the board but also by [ the former chairman] Leslie Deans, to see if I could get things moving again.

"That was when I met him [Romanov] in London. I spoke to him, and persuaded him that he should come back and get involved. Once I got to know that they were back in dialogue I then just stepped back and kept a watching eye on it."

Deans, Robinson and the media company SMG all held roughly 20 per cent of the shares. While the purchase of half of Deans's holding was relatively straightforward, dealings with SMG "never got beyond first base", according to Foulkes.

The longer talks went on, the more Robinson was blamed for holding out for an inflated price, but the chairman recalls a more complex picture.

"There were highs and lows during the discussions with Romanov. There were times we thought they were going to succeed, and other times they really got very difficult.

"To be fair to Chris - a phrase I use quite a lot - the nature of these negotiations is a lot more complicated than seems the case from the outside, both in terms of reaching a financial agreement but even more so in terms of the legalities of it all. And I think they did genuinely take a lot longer.

"It was as frustrating for me as it was for anyone, but I was sure we were moving in the right direction. I was anxious to keep the talks going, because it became increasingly obvious there was no other show in town.

"We'd gone through all the options. Romanov was the only person who was prepared to put a lot of resources into the negotiations, quite apart from what he's put into the club subsequently.

"He appointed top-level lawyers and PR people, and got Sergejus Fedotovas, one of the directors of Ukio Bankas, to come over here to negotiate. It was a huge commitment.

"As I've said on several occasions since, everything he said he was going to do, he has done. That's not to say we might not have asked him to do more, but everything he has agreed to do after discussions with us, he has delivered."

Given Romanov's ambitious talk of challenging the Old Firm, a degree of scepticism about his utterances is understandable. Foulkes, however, has been surprised by what he regards as outright hostility.

"I think there are two reasons, really, for the negative comments. One is xenophobia - there is a fundamental misunderstanding in some people's minds about what kind of a place Lithuania is. It was part of the Soviet Union, but it's a Baltic country, more Scandinavian than Eastern European.

"The other is the comparison with Roman Abramovich. Maybe I'm partly to blame for that, because I said we're looking for our own Abramovich as an easy way of explaining the type of involvement we needed.

"It was never the case that Romanov promised that level of investment, nor does he have those resources. But what he has done and what he will do is put in the commitment.

"He's bought just under 30 per cent of the shares. He's committed the resources of his bank. He has taken over responsibility for the debt at a lower interest rate than we had before, and that's a huge commitment. He has underwritten the cost of our three players from Lithuania. And he is now prepared to underwrite the appointment of a top-class coach. And when that coach comes up with proposals for strengthening the squad he's going to underwrite that as well.

"But he's not going to give anyone a blank cheque. I've spoken with other people - about Fulham, for example, and the manager of Fulham doesn't have a blank cheque either. Mohammed Al Fayed doesn't say there you are, go and buy some players.

Romanov wants every pound we spend to be spent effectively. I don't blame him. That means at the moment keeping a close eye on it."

After Romanov completed his takeover on 1 February, it became increasingly clear that he had less than total confidence in John Robertson's ability to manage the club. The former Hearts striker had been quickly appointed to succeed Craig Levein the previous November while the club were involved in the group stages of the UEFA Cup, but was never at ease with the new owners and their way of working.

"I think it's probably fair to say that as time went on Romanov probably became less and less sure that Robbo's judgment was right as far as taking us to the highest level was concerned. It's not a revelation to say that he had some doubt about his ability at this stage to be a top-level manager."

Those doubts were shared by Fedotovas and his fellow-Lithuanian board members, Liutauras Varanavicius and Roman Romanov, the son of Vladimir. Robinson, for his part, was not so much doubtful as convinced that Robertson was not the right man for the job. By early May, Foulkes and Phil Anderton, who had taken over as chief executive the previous month, had to agree to a compromise - ask Robertson to stay in a diminished role as assistant to an as yet unnamed head coach. Such a move was thought by many to amount to constructive dismissal, but Foulkes denied that. "The purpose of that offer was to make it clear that we thought Robbo had potential. An alternative course of action could have been seen as more brutal. I wanted - and so, incidentally, did Phil - to make sure his going was dignified.

"We also felt it was unfair to keep Robbo hanging on while seeking a new manager. That could have given him false hope."

The decision of the Romanov element on the board to oust the head coach risked alienating those supporters who had revered Robertson as a player.

The impression left on Foulkes over the past 14 months, however, is that the new regime at Tynecastle is far more respectful of the fans' views than was its predecessor, and that Romanov takes a consensual approach, not a dictatorial one.

"He's not even head of the company, not in the way that Abramovich is at Chelsea or Malcolm Glazer is about to be at Manchester United, or David Murray is at Rangers. He's the largest shareholder, he's the banker for the company, he is underwriting our future.

"So he is effectively the person in charge, but he doesn't throw his weight around. He's not that kind of person.

"He has strong views, and he lets you know his views. But on the other hand, he listens to people. He listens to Sergejus, who is his eyes and ears and very intelligent, very perceptive and well liked by the people around the club. He listens to me, and he listens increasingly now to Phil, who is doing a very good job."

Having seen how much time and effort as well as money Romanov has already put into Hearts, Foulkes is certain that the club's grand plan will become reality.

"The one person who is going to have more egg on his face than anyone if it fails is Vladimir Romanov. I'm going to have some, the rest of the board are going to have some, but he is the one who has staked more than anyone else. There's no way that he's going to allow it to fail."

Taken from the Scotsman