Use the head not the heart

IN TERMS of risk assessment, Hearts face a stark choice as they ponder the suitability of leading candidates Nevio Scala and George Burley to be their head coach. Do they allow themselves to be seduced by a stonking CV to the exclusion of merit-weakening considerations, or should they be satisfied with the absence of these in a safe pair of hands? If they plump for the former to end a search expected to be concluded this week, then all roads point to Scala. The much travelled, honour-laden 57-year-old, after being decidedly vocal about his desire to take up the £400,000-a-year job, has more recently been making gnomic utterances about "needing time" to find out everything about Scottish football and learn the local lingo.

Scala certainly is the name to conjure with that owner Vladimir Romanov set his Hearts on to spend serious cash and make good on his grand plan to challenge the Old Firm's duopoly. Forever remembered for guiding Parma to UEFA Cup, Cup Winners' Cup and the Italian Cup during a seven-year stint at the club, subsequent title successes with Besiktas and Shakhtar Dontesk give lie to some suggestions Scala is a one-trick pony.

The contrast with Burley could not be more complete. The 49-year-old Scot has managed at a fairly modest level throughout his 15-year trackside career. If Scala is the big gun, his rival for the Tynecastle post more resembles a pea-shooter. For Burley's most notable achievements stand as leading Ipswich Town to a fifth-place Premiership finish and hauling a skint Derby County into this year's Championship play-off.

Yet, this ability to make a little go an awful long way, as the former Ayr United manager did both at Portman Road and the Baseball Ground, points to Burley being a more natural fit for Hearts. Even if the Lithuanian owners make good their promise of massive investment toward player recruitment, the sums involved will be a drop in the ocean compared to what Scala has been accustomed to operating with.

Equally, while Burley has demonstrated his considerable team-building abilities within the last year, recent experiences suggest that Scala could have moved well beyond the apex of his coaching arc.

Maybe it is uncharitable to petition that Hearts' kingmakers hear alarm bells going off over the fact that Scala lost out to Berti Vogts for the Scotland's manager post in early 2002. The Italian was rejected because of his weak grasp of English. Indeed, a dubious regard for immersing himself in the footballing culture of wherever he has fronted up outside of Italy is considered one reason his subsequent spell with Shakhtar proved relatively brief.

A double in his first season which allowed the Ukranian club to celebrate their first title, is considered a success that can be attributed to billionaire owner Rinat Akhmetov - or rather his pumping in money as though it were water to drown rivals Dynamo Kiev. Reputedly, Akhmetov enticed Scala with a £6million contract. Europe, the acid test, provided bitterness for Scala at Shakhtar with the club ousted at the third qualifying stage by Brugge in 2003. He was replaced within a year.

A meagre £750,000 salary resulted in him remaining in Eastern Europe, Spartak Moscow recruiting his services in November of 2004 after finishing ninth in their championship, their lowest ever finish. By the time Scala had been given his jotters nine months later, they were only one place better off, a string of poor results ensuring Scala was given a media roasting for failing to grasp the local demands.

"It was a really difficult situation over there," he has said. "The chairman was in the process of selling the club. I wanted to make a few signings, and ended up with the exact opposite of what I'd requested. People end up paying for things like that." He fails to mention that the club paid around £12m for his transfer sorties. Scala has best performed when money has been no object. In unremarkable spells with Perugia and Dortmund that was not the case.

Dairy firm Parmalat's bankrolling of Parma allowed him to attract footballing cream in the form of Hristov Stoichkov, Tino Asprilla and Thomas Brolin. Yet in earning them promotion to the top flight in 1990 at the end of his first season, he certainly made the most of his club's wealth.

This could never be said of Burley, who has been expected to firefight rather than trail blaze when handed posts. He was unsuccessful in taking the heat out the situation Ayr United found themselves after being appointed player-manager in 1990. But when he started to make headway with Colchester United four years later he began to attract the attentions of Ipswich, for whom he played 500 games spanning 13 years and the club's golden period.

Within a season of taking charge at Portman Road in December 1994, he had constructed a young, vibrant, free-scoring side who only just missed out on the play-offs in 1996. For the next three seasons their promotion hopes were dashed before he engineered the club's return to the top flight in 2000. Careful squad augmentation on reaching the promised land meant European football, delivered courtesy of a remarkable campaign which ended with only Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Leeds United above them.

This couldn't be sustained. After relegation was followed by a run of only two wins in nine at the start of the 2000-2001 First Divsion season, Burley was relieved of the position he had held for almost eight years. Six months later, he returned as caretaker manager at a Derby County threatening to drop out of the English game's second tier. Despite results improving little early on, he was later made permanent in a job that had earned the reputation as a no-win one.

He was forced to reshape the squad while the budget was slashed by a reputed 80%, and few victories came the club's way the following season as he had to make do with the players he inherited. Burley astutely replaced many of these with a slew of unheralded free transfers last summer. The upsurge in fortunes this effected earned the club a play-off place, but no professional contentment for Burley. He resigned having endured a fractious relationship with Derby's director of football, Murdo Mackay, and allegations of heavy drinking.

As Hearts embark on a major season-ticket sales drive, they may not view Burley as sufficiently sexy for their tastes. However, if Scala is favoured and accepts, then the Edinburgh club had better be prepared for a costly seduction.

Taken from the Scotsman