Bye George, Burley's away

MOIRA GORDON
AT TYNECASTLE

GEORGE Burley has been sacked as Hearts manager. The man who lost just one match in his four month-stint, and took the Tynecastle club to the top of the SPL, was shown the door after a fall-out with club owner Vladimir Romanov on Friday night.

An informal board meeting was convened in the aftermath and when no resolution could be reached, a formal meeting was held yesterday morning. It was agreed that the manager, who signed a two-year deal worth around £500,000 in June, would have to go.

The development came just 24 hours after majority shareholder Romanov increased his stake in the club to 55% in his bid to take outright control. In an official club statement, only released after yesterday's 2-0 league victory over Dunfermline, "irreconcilable differences" were cited, but fans and players were stunned at the timing of the decision. Chairman George Foulkes maintained the party line that the split had been by mutual consent but it is widely understood that the decision was not Burley's.

"After discussions between the Board of Heart of Midlothian Football Club and George Burley, it has been mutually agreed that because of irreconcilable differences, George Burley will not continue at the club with immediate effect, said the statement."

The trouble had been brewing for some time with rumours of antipathy between Romanov and Burley. The two headstrong men had never really hit it off and disagreements over team selection, the Lithuanian's plans to appoint a Head of Football and differences in opinion over signing targets had simply exacerbated the situation. Fans are still desperate for a definitive explanation and some reacted angrily both before and after yesterday's match. The board have refused to go into details, however, claiming a confidentiality agreement has been signed by all parties preventing them doing so.

"I can understand their bewilderment," said Foulkes, "but these things happen in football. We are now looking for a top-class manager who we believe will be worthy of taking Heart of Midlothian to Champions League football but in the interim John McGlynn will be caretaker manager. I believe that now that we are top of the league, with the quality of the team, and the kind of resources that Vladimir Romanov has pledged, I think we will have a queue of people at our door seeking to come and work here. This is a plum job in British football.

"We are not going to rush it but we're also not going to have undue delay. I can say the club will go from strength to strength," added Foulkes, who acknowledged it was "not a great day for Hearts".

Shocked players had been told the news just hours before yesterday's game, which they won to extend their unbeaten league run to 10 matches, but club captain Steven Pressley said it was a "bolt from the blue. No-one expected that. We prepared as normal yesterday and the manager was in a very confident and optimistic mood but something has obviously happened to change the course of events and we are bitterly disappointed. He was a very popular manager within the dressing room He was a man we all respected. He was a great coach, a great man and I cannot stress enough just how disappointed we all are.

"Mr Romanov briefed the players but we don't know the details of what happened. But we have a duty as players to represent this football club and get results for this football club and that's what we will continue to do. As captain, I am very proud of this group of players and I have said time and again that there is great unity within our dressing room and I'm sure the manager would have been very proud [of the way they performed against Dunfermline].

"All I will add is that as captain I will do my utmost to make sure we are not derailed from sustaining a challenge. In fact, this should drive us on even more because if we were able to go on and sustain a challenge it would be a great testament to the players and we could all be proud."

Betraying real emotion, the player who has endured several years of unrest at Tynecastle and had finally thought they could have a period of peace and stability, added that the decision by key players to display t-shirts with the message "For the Gaffer" after the match was "an individual choice and left entirely up to the individuals but it was a very clear indication of the feelings towards the manager.

"This was the last thing the players wanted to happen but I'm old enough to realise that, in football, anything can happen." And when it's Hearts Football Club, it usually does.

Taken from the Scotsman