Burley on mission to drive up standards

GLENN GIBBONS
CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER

GEORGE Burley's ebullience may be as central to his nature as breathing, but it does not entirely eclipse a capacity for worrying to the point of alarm.

Whatever optimistic noises the new Hearts manager has made about the prospects of re-fashioning the Tynecastle side into an authentic threat to the Old Firm duopoly - and his sunny outlook is the real thing, based on work in progress - Burley cannot camouflage his concern at the deterioration in the standard of footballer the country now produces.

Having last been involved in the Scottish game at Ayr United ten years ago, the former Ipswich and Derby manager has had to confront an unpalatable truth in the short time since he returned to succeed John Robertson in Edinburgh.

It will be encouraging to Hearts supporters, however, that the man now in charge of carrying out remedial work on the field takes an evangelical view of the problem, prepared to tackle it with missionary zeal.

"What shocked me more than the gap that has grown between the Old Firm and the rest of the SPL clubs was the lack of quality in young Scottish players coming through the ranks," said Burley, during a lengthy, insightful and gratifyingly candid conversation the other day. "In the 1970s and 80s, as everybody knows, every top club in England had three or four Scots.

"Coming back after an absence, I look at the quality and I think, 'Well, this is not the way it should be.' Whatever the cause, whether it's the distractions of the modern lifestyle or something else, the standards have definitely dropped.

"And, while there is no doubt that Celtic and Rangers have had an enormous advantage over the others in financial terms, I think it's the overall deterioration in the quality of the players the country has been producing that is more responsible than anything for the lack of challenge to the Old Firm.

"I honestly do think that will change. Hibs have done well, Aberdeen are bringing players in, as are others, while I am very, very happy with the level of player we have been able to bring here. But the most alarming thing in Scottish football is that these clubs have to bring people in. I think that worries everybody.

"I take the point that it's not ideal for the gap between the Old Firm and the rest to close because Celtic and Rangers deteriorate. It is much more desirable for us to improve towards them. I think that will happen, certainly where Hearts are concerned, but how long it will take is another matter.

"Coming into this club, it's my job to improve the young Scottish players through our work on the training field. And I do feel that, with the involvement of Vladimir Romanov here, the gap will be closed. We already have good quality players coming in here, and that helps everybody.

"It helps the younger guys to raise their standards and it gives a lift to the established, senior players already here. But I have been dismayed to find that, generally speaking, the younger players are not at the level I was used to at Ipswich and Derby. I have been impressed with Lee Wallace, Christophe Berra and Calum Elliot in the pre-season work. That's three, but we're looking for a lot more and it's part of my job to create that improvement. Having said that, I am certain that we have a first-team squad now that operates at a higher level than the first team at Derby, my last club."

Burley's honesty over the evidence of past negligence in certain areas at Tynecastle extends to the club's failure to exploit a healthy fan base through the kind of marketing and brand promotion that has long been standard practice in the English game. It also embraces a lack of modernity in equipment and methodology in matters relating to players' fitness, health and treatment. But he is persuaded that the arrival of Phil Anderton as chief executive, supported by the major shareholder, Vladimir Romanov, will transform these areas.

It was, indeed, Anderton's opening address that started to persuade Burley of the desirability of the manager's job. Previously uninterested, even reluctant, he had to be convinced by Anderton and, later, by Romanov himself, that he would be given "a realistic opportunity" to take Hearts forward.

"I realise full well," said Burley, "that the Old Firm are going to bring in more money because of their fan base and that, with modern technology, their supporters can now order merchandise at the touch of a button from the other side of the world. But that will change where Hearts are concerned. That's where Phil Anderton comes in. He is an expert in that area. Up till now, there have been virtually no sponsors here, which is something that has been taken for granted in England for a long time.

"It's been rather neglected and, in that respect, Hearts have been way behind the times. They may be the third biggest club in Scotland, but that hasn't been exploited nearly enough. It will be now. That will make a big difference.

"Nowadays, it's not just about bringing in good players, but about getting the best out of them through having a great stadium - and Tynecastle is to be re-done - and top-class training and development facilities. That's why I was brought here, it's what my staff and I are here to do.

"Now you're looking at fitness, health, the treatment of injuries, bringing in chiropractors and dieticians, all things I have been introduced to in the last seven years or so that have all been a great help in getting the best out of players. That's an area where we are going to move on, where Hearts in the past have stood still. All of that will help us progress towards making the end product, what you see on the field, much better. And I am utterly convinced that it will be."

Burley admitted to having no such confidence when Anderton made his initial approach, with a view to wooing Burley following the departure of Robertson.

"My wife wanted me to have three or four months off after I left Derby, to have a good break. I had been travelling a lot - I still have my house in Ipswich - and I wasn't really interested in the Hearts job. It was only after Phil approached and spoke to me and persuaded me then to talk with Mr Romanov that I began even to consider it.

"It wasn't an interview for me, but rather the other way round, them having to 'sell' the job to me and to convince me that it would be a good move. Otherwise, I would have been happy to stay in England.

"After speaking to them and seeing how ambitious they were, I thought, 'Yeah, it would be a great challenge to come here with a realistic chance of fulfilling those ambitions'. Edinburgh is a lovely city, but I have a lovely place in Ipswich with a nice garden and people still ask me, 'What do you want to move to Hearts for?' But they don't realise that we already have good players here and have brought in some excellent players and I have a serious opportunity to take Hearts forward and that's why I took the job.

"There's no doubt that over the past couple of years, there have been cut-backs, cut-backs and cut-backs, with no sign of going forward. That wouldn't have appealed to me because I wanted to have a feasible prospect of being successful. I wanted the chance to get closer to the Old Firm, rather than take three steps back."

Burley is not, however, so blindly optimistic as to fail to recognise that the anticipated transformation will not be effected overnight, or that there will not be some faltering along the way. It could happen, he acknowledged, as early as this opening day of the championship. "Of course, there will be hiccups and glitches, but people will have to be prepared for that. Even in our opening game at Kilmarnock on Saturday, we can't presume anything. It's come a bit soon for us, because players like Roman Bednar and Edgaras Jankauskas, who will be our strikers, are not yet fully fit.

"I would have liked to have been two weeks further down the line in terms of preparation. We started late and we can't change that. But that doesn't mean we can't go there and get the right result. We'll go there and be positive."

Even a few minutes in his company would be sufficient to persuade anyone that George Burley would find it impossible to be anything else.

Taken from the Scotsman