Vlad all over as happy Jambos defy doubters

ANDREW SMITH

CASSANDRA complexes have abounded among those looking in on Hearts since the Vladimir Romanov-inspired transformation of the club. Yet, with each passing week, there are ever more reasons for those following the club to become Pollyannas of the first order.

Initially, during the protracted takeover, there was scepticism about whether the Lithuanian businessman would ever front up with the sums required to take control. When he then did so, promising a football set-up that could challenge the Old Firm, the laughing in the West was audible all the way to Gorgie.

With George Burley in the Tynecastle management post and more middle-to-heavyweight performers arriving at the club than could be accommodated in a people carrier, attentions have now turned to how temporary the Hearts renaissance might prove. As if permanence ever existed in football.

Romanov is a self-confessed meddler who is forcing players on Burley in a situation his manager admits is "not ideal". But that doesn't automatically mean, as certain media outlets have speculated, the Scot is on the verge of jacking it in. With his team possibly on the verge of a historic breakthrough, having taken the initiative against two very vulnerable Old Firm sides, he, surely, has too much to give up.

"It is a different scenario from what I am used to and I have said that from day one," Burley states. "But you have to consider if Mr Romanov hadn't been around where would the club have been and how far we have come."

Burley may not put up with interference in the long term but his willingness to hang around might be determined by Hearts' ascendancy in the short-term. In turn, this will have a knock-on effect in Romanov's continued interest levels in his pet project. For now, there seems no reason to presume that Romanov will bail out before seeing out his three-year plan. By then, redevelopment of Tynecastle or moving to a purpose-built stadium elsewhere would have ensured the club were better off than in pre-Romanov times. "We want to move up from a 17,000 capacity to 25,000," chief executive Phil Anderton explains

"If at that point we're selling out every game, then that gives us revenue to go out and invest even more in the team, and at that point we can say it is our ambition to win the league. At the moment we want to move from fifth to third. Then, over a period of three to five years, we want to be up their genuinely challenging for silverware."

Romanov has told of bumping into Roman Abramovich and being asked by a puzzled Russian billionaire why on earth he was investing heavily in a team so off the beaten track when it comes to potential European football powerbases. In doing so, he planted a seed that he could be enticed away by other suitors. Should he be so, the creative accountancy allowing Hearts to command the services of a raft of gifted performers while the tab is picked up for these by lending club - and Romanov's first love - Kaunas, ought to ensure the liabilities left behind would not sink the club, as was often true of the subs this former Russian sailor once manned.

Granted, for a club servicing debts pushing upwards from £18million, there can be little justification for agreeing deals with Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley that, in not being far shy of the £10,000-a-week Edgaras Jankauskas is banking, represent fat-cat salaries the pair would been unable to earn anywhere else in Scotland, the Old Firm included.

As long as Romanov is willing to take the sort of hit that would make little dent in the personal fortunes he has amassed, the club can bound along merrily. And even if this situation changes, there is always the option of becoming a selling club once more. Certain observers consider the loan arrangements with a number of players already make them rich pickings for predators.

"It would be completely different if they came from Stuttgart, but some of these players are here from Kaunas and there's a measure of influence we can have there," Anderton states. "Of course, if someone came in with a ridiculous offer of £20million for a player then we might accept that and reinvest it in another five players.

"In an ideal world, you would have all your players funded and tied down. It can work the other way. You could bring in a player on big wages and a long contract and find he quickly falls out of form. I'm sure there are numerous examples of that in the past and possibly at Hearts. This way we can look at, for example, Ibrahim Tall (on loan till January) and if he does well, great, we can exercise our option and, if not, say thanks very much and off he goes."

Anderton doesn't rule out further player investment in the January transfer window, this dependent on Romanov's further willingness to dip into his own pocket. The businessman appears sufficiently egotistical to really put the frighteners on the Old Firm if Burley's side can last the pace till then. Progress which, if achieved, would be one in the eye for detractors Anderton is fast tiring of.

"There are not too many people who put their heads above the parapet but there are plenty of armchair critics who don't do too much with their own lives," he says. "Rangers and Celtic are massive organisations. They have consistently won the league, not by small margins but massive margins. But it can happen. Blackburn and Chelsea did it in England and we want to do it here.

"I can understand why people are sceptical. The annoying thing is that over-pessimistic Scottish argument which says: 'It cannot be done.' Underlying that is the hope that we fail. Some people don't like it when others try to make things happen. It's frustrating that there isn't a balance of comment on what we are doing.

"Yes, we still have the debt, but what do people want? Do they want us to buy players and increase that? Did they want us to stick with what we had and remain fifth in the league? We believe we're doing the right thing."

Supporters of such as Dundee and Livingston are unlikely to demur. Though the overspend, nay reckless cheque-signing, at these clubs has threatened their very existence, few with loyalties to the Almondvale side or the Dens Park club wouldn't accept the schtuk they are in now for their recent grandstanding days. Brief periods that brought silverware to West Lothian, and European football and inordinately-high league finishes for two clubs who may never know such again.

The accountants who sorted out the pair's financial mess, and those who lost their jobs to keep the clubs in business, might take a different view of Hearts' present expansion. But, wherever this leads the Edinburgh club, Romanov's largesse should limit any lasting damage.

At least, that's the theory.

Taken from the Scotsman