ROMANOV SPEAKS OUT: "I’m investing money so it’s my right to buy players. It’s up to the manager to train them"

TWO’s company, three’s a crowd. If that’s the evidence of Hearts’ arrival into the Premierleague title race – or, perhaps more accurately, the chase for Champions League qualification and those all-important Swiss francs – then in the boardrooms it’s definitely the shape of things to come for the “three Kings” seeking to lead and direct Scottish football’s policymakers to suit their own ends.

David Murray and Dermot Desmond have never been shy of trying to influence the course of our decision-makers, whether at SPL, SFA or even governmental levels. As for Uefa and Fifa, Vladimir Romanov’s reply when asked where he would see his future if ordered to restrict his influence to one club alone was typically disarming: “In Fifa!”

On Saturday, Romanov’s runaway league leaders meet Rangers in arguably the most eagerly-awaited SPL match in the last 20 years not involving both sides of the Old Firm. Yesterday’s 1-0 win at Inverness was Hearts’ seventh straight victory out of the blocks, with star Rudi Skacel scoring in each. Romanov expects George Burley’s team to triumph on the field, and means to start talking seriously with Murray and his Celtic counterpart about changes off the field also.

Money, naturally, will be the theme.

For the first time since slipping into our game via private talks with Dundee’s Peter Marr 18 months ago – aside from a handful of PR masterclasses in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Kaunas, where he hosted Liverpool in this season’s Champions League qualifiers – Romanov is ready to demand centre-stage for himself.

It’s hard to give too much credence to the Russian-born industrialist and financier when he insists he remains a novice by comparison with his Old Firm counterparts, stating: “No, I don’t see myself as the equal of David Murray and Dermot Desmond, not in any footballing sense. These men each have a long history of success at the helm of Rangers and Celtic. They have enjoyed great victories at home and abroad which we, and myself over one season, have not been able to match.”

Besides – with a reported £260 million fortune of his own, built up through metalworks and banking investments stretching from the Baltics to the Balkans – he is very much their equal when it comes to getting what he wants.

And what he clearly wants, over and above the prestige and riches of a Champ-ions League group stage berth, is power within Scottish football, and a level of influence on the wider business community that his existing monopoly on the Lithuanian championship with FC Kaunas could never deliver back home.

In by far his most revealing interview yet, Romanov told the Sunday Herald after an hour-long Q&A session with 100 hand-picked Hearts fans and shareholders, that he is to begin a tour of club chairmen and institutional figures aimed at cementing his position of authority. At the head of his queue of targets for talks are Murray, Desmond and, of course, Edinburgh rivals Hibs who may not be competing for the title this season, but who have clearly impressed him with their dogged pursuit of improvement on minimal resources.

Of the Old Firm’s senior figures, he added: “I’m not even at the stage yet where I’ve been able to pursue seriously any kind of relationship with either man, we’ve just had so much work to do here and not enough time. But I’m looking forward to entering into correspondence with them, talking when our teams meet, of course. And we’ll take things from there.

“I don’t have time to play golf, for instance, but I’ll always be glad to talk. I’m keen to acquaint myself with the organ isational structure of all the clubs in Scotland, not just Celtic and Rangers. I’ve already spent time, of course, with Dundee, Dundee United and Dunfermline. And I’m not just looking at the SPL here, I want to see how clubs are run right the way through the divisions.”

He wants more than that, you can be sure. To begin with, he wants votes when decisions need changing in his favour. And the dynamic created by a trio of power brokers, as opposed to the previous Old Firm duopoly which has dominated for most of the past century, is such that he has every chance of getting his way.

The issues are not insignificant. The Old Firm hit the bar in recent years seeking change at structural level on commercial issues such as TV rights and revenues distribution, including overseas marketing splits. Think Shunsuke Nakamura. However, poorer results on the park for the Glasgow giants this season will diminish their claim for a greater share of the cake, and result in even less dividends in a new three-sided era.

Quite simply, Romanov will demand another rewrite of the Barnett-like formula which still sees the Old Firm draw the lion’s share of domestically-generated income. In a nutshell, a bigger Hearts deserve a larger slice of the collectively-negotiated SPL pie – and, as the league’s biggest travelling support, with less room even for Old Firm fans, his argument carries growing weight.

Within this context, Romanov’s views on Hibernian are doubly intriguing and quite the opposite from dark merger or takeover motives envisaged by worried fans in Leith who cannot forget moves made by Wallace Mercer the last time anyone even attempted what Romanov is doing.

Romanov actually dismissed chairman George Foulkes’ suggestion that Hearts could play temporarily on the other side of the city while a new main stand is built to increase Tynecastle capacity. In fact, he suggested there might even be room for football expansion in the capital.

He said of the Foulkes plan: “As far as I’m concerned, there haven’t been any serious negotiations, or even discussions with Hibs about groundsharing Easter Road. There were some old proposals to go there while re-developing Tynecastle, but I’ve not yet looked at those. First and foremost, I’d like to see how Hibs run themselves – in order to win a battle, you need to know your opponent!

“In any case, Edinburgh is Scotland’s capital, it houses the Scottish Parliament and is the economic powerhouse of the region. I think Hearts and Hibs can both benefit and flourish in a European context. Already we have a wonderful derby and certainly Edinburgh deserves a Champions League presence.

“The city is big enough for both clubs to make their mark, and it may be there’s room even for a third club.”

Meadowbankaunas Thistle, anyone?

Romanov’s ambitions are as clear as his willingness to fund the first steps towards their fulfillment, wages of £10,000-per-week for Champions League-winning striker Edgar Jankauskas and Euro 2004 medallist Takis Fyssas, paid through his own companies. But not, he stressed, at the expense of wider boardroom goodwill.

He said: “Obviously, I want to overhaul the Old Firm but we must remember they have earned their place, and not just in Scottish football. We need to work to find a compromise on the issue of how many Rangers and Celtic fans we can accommodate at Tynecastle. I just want Hearts to be able to achieve what the Old Firm have in the past.

“Some people have said Saulius Mikoliunas let things get to him last season, and I don’t want our fans going down that route on this issue.”

Andy Davis take note, someone cried …

Housing his anticipated exponential increase in fans is obviously the No 1 medium-term issue at Tynecastle, one chief executive Phil Anderton was left to quietly chew over from his standing perch at the back of the Gorgie suite. The former Scottish Rugby director arrived just in time to witness Romanov work his hand-picked audience with a dexterity of which even George Galloway might have been proud on Capitol Hill.

Why is Chris Robinson still involved, a shareholder asked to ironic boos? The answer was pure Romanov, with the showman in Hearts’ new owner neatly defusing any potential for controversy or even misunderstanding while drizzling his feast of an answer with one-liners.

He said, dropping in the odd menacing smile: “I can understand your reservations, and I am only able to share my dreams with you at the moment, but Chris Robinson has the chance to achieve the impossible. He has been tasked with buying the land and building a new ground and a hotel which will accommodate the star players I want to see at Hearts next season.

“If he fails to achieve this, we will conduct our audit and take measures to bring in somebody else. Things had taken an undesirable turn at the club, much of its running had been amateurish. And it’s true, if we’re to secure the services of stars of a European calibre for the future, the club must be run on the appropriate level.

“For starters, we need to look at the academy facilities – there’s no dietician, no doctor and at present, the players are fed like soldiers on the front! They have to bring their own thermos flask! The only thing I could think of was to address the Ministry of Education and ask how it’s possible that people in such an important institution – tasked with caring for kids – could work in such conditions.

“For some reason, state institutions have a habit of appointing unsuccessful individuals. We need to struggle and fight on behalf of our young sportsmen and women … This task is also being given to Chris Robinson,” he concluded with tongue firmly in cheek, his official interpreter scarcely required.

The adjacent whisky distillery provides the main obstacle to a complete re- building job on the present ground’s site. Again, Romanov toyed with his adoring fans, chuckling: “What am I supposed to do? Buy the distillery! What would we do without whisky?!” Vodka, perhaps? “Already I’ve had more than one heated conversation with the local bureaucracy,” he continued. “It’s easier to beat Celtic than it is the local authorities!”

Arguably of more pressing concern to the fans are continuing rumours that all is not well between Romanov and Burley. Persistent as attempts to defuse them have been, Romanov’s most detailed explanation of his position to-date hardly dismisses the notion there is no smoke without potential fire … notwithstanding the fact that opponents in the west have an interest in driving a wedge between the pair.

“There often exists a particularly British gap in understanding between the management and the shareholders at a football club,” Romanov said. “I consider it should be my right to buy players for the club, it is the head coach’s duty to train and manage those players. This club is 130 years old, it’s had a lot of managers and I don’t suppose George Burley will be the last.

“How we relate to the current manager will depend on how he performs. I’m investing money, so it’s my right – although obviously I heed his advice. However, the reality of investment – time and money – is that the final word must rest with me. This is normal. In trying to move forward more quickly, constructive debate is good. Those who don’t have the club’s best interests at heart will try to use that to divide us. If they were all silent, that would be a cause for concern!”

Besides, only Romanov can extend star find Rudi Skacel’s loan switch from Marseilles. Burley can scarcely be downhearted at his paymaster’s input on the Czech international. “As far as I’m aware, Rudi’s contract is permanent and he will be kept on depending on how well he does [Romanov chuckles]. Maybe that is why he is scoring so many goals!”

Provided, of course, Uefa don’t throw a spanner into the works given the owner’s other football interests, also extending to Belarus club MTZ-Ripo Minsk. Even there, the answer is logical enough, Romanov arguing: “I don’t consider any of the clubs we’re involved in to be of secondary importance. Each has the goal of becoming champions in their respective countries. It’s a question of creating pleasure and entertainment for people.

“Football is like chess, remember, it’s not all won and lost with the legs. You have to play it with the head too. And the experience of one feeds into what you do with another. What I would say is I am not eternal, the club is.”

Provided he can quickly achieve his goal of “liquidating” the £18m debts transferred to shirt sponsors Ukios Bank. How quickly can that happen, you ask? “That depends on God,” says the man clearly aiming to fill that very role ...

Taken from the Sunday Herald