CHRIS Robinson has cleared his personal effects from his office at Tynecastle and is finally expected to resign from the Hearts board this week, according to club sources. The move comes a day after supporters pledged their readiness to resume demonstrations against the man who stood down as chief executive at the start of February but has since remained as a director.

Robinson's continuing as a director was supposedly designed to ensure a smooth transition between his time in charge and the new set-up at Hearts under the club's principal shareholder, the Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov.

Recently, however, those supporters who fought long and hard to prevent the board selling Tynecastle and moving Hearts to Murrayfield have become increasingly concerned about the length of time that transition has taken.

If confirmed, Robinson's decision to quit will not only be a victory for those supporters, but will also provide further proof of the new board's insistence on keeping its promises. Sergejus Fedotovas, the director who acted as interim chief executive before the appointment of Phil Anderton, pledged back in February that Robinson would go, as did Anderton himself three months later.

"The board will be meeting at the end of the season and there will be changes to the board," Anderton said. "Chris Robinson will no longer be a member of the board. He will be leaving this club and will have no formal association with the club."

That board meeting was postponed as Hearts concentrated on the search for a new manager which was concluded successfully with the appointment of George Burley. The board will finally convene next Monday, with the recruitment of new directors expected to be on the agenda.

Despite those statements by Fedotovas and Anderton, however, there were times when the removal of Robinson did not seem a foregone conclusion. Eager to hold on to his official positions with the SFA, Robinson remained active in some areas of club business such as the plans to redevelop Tynecastle in the hope that the Lithuanians would decide he was indispensable and go back on their commitments.

In the event, they decided otherwise, and had the full backing of both Anderton and the Hearts chairman, George Foulkes. Robinson is now expected to present his resignation as all his own work, but the reality is that Fedotovas and his colleagues made his mind up for him.

The departure of Robinson would leave seven men on the board - Foulkes, Anderton, Fedotovas, his two compatriots Roman Romanov and Liutauras Varanavicius, David Archer and the finance director Stewart Fraser. As the SMG representative, Archer will remain for as long as his company hold on to its 20 per cent stake in the club and wants him to represent it.

The future of Fraser, however, is less certain. He moved to Hearts from his previous post with a catering company run by Robinson, and many supporters regard him as a creature of the former chief executive.

Meanwhile, Hearts announced yesterday that they plan to let fans in free to next Wednesday's Tynecastle friendly against Middlesbrough. The scheme requires the approval of the police, with whom Anderton held discussions yesterday.

Taken from the Scotsman