Burley loses power games

Hearts last night issued a short statement that did little but confirm the news that silenced Gorgie Road during the hours before the team completed its first circuit of the Premierleague without defeat. If those supporters were disbelieving, those in the know within Scottish football reacted with a lack of surprise at the disintegration of a relationship known to be at breaking point.

Terry Butcher is more than a fellow Premierleague manager, more even than an old teammate who grew up with Burley at Ipswich Town. The two have remained friends and their families socialise together away from the game. “George has always said that if Vladimir Romanov was telling him how to pick the team then he would walk away,” said Butcher last night after his Motherwell team had lost at Ibrox. “Any manager would do the same”. You can scrub one name off the list of potential successors, then. “George is a man of integrity and a man of principle and a great guy. If it was down to him then he must have felt strongly about it. He has moulded a very good side there, but there is only one person who can pick the team.” Asked if he was surprised at the news, Butcher replied: “Within football, I don’t think anyone was. Not when you hear the stories and you speak to George and his staff.”

Alex McLeish, the Rangers manager, confirmed that the breakdown of the central relationship at Tynecastle was an open secret. “I’m not 100% shocked having spoken to George recently,” he said. “I’m not surprised, put it that way”.

Sources close to the club last night confirmed that the split is down to the disintegration of the relationship between Burley and Vladimir Romanov, the Russian banker who on Friday achieved outright control of the Edinburgh club by increasing his holding to 55.5%.

The turbulent relationship between the two has been a feature of Burley’s three-month tenure at Tynecastle, and he has repeatedly expressed concerns over what he has described as their “different views of how a football club should be run”. Romanov reportedly challenged Burley over his decision to play the French midfielder, Julien Brellier, at Dundee United earlier this season, asking the manager to sign a written explanation of his selection. Romanov was also pushing for more game time for the Lithuanian wingers, Saulius Mikoliunas and Deveidas Cesnauskis. The final confrontation involved the former Germany striker Fredi Bobic, flown in by Romanov for a three-day trial, rejected by Burley after two. The manager decided to draw a line in the sand and it would appear that Romanov has now trampled all over it.

The Hearts players learned of Burley’s departure yesterday morning as they sat down for their pre-match meal at a Dalmahoy hotel. The final confrontation between manager and majority shareholder had already taken place.

However, Burley’s stock is higher than at any time since he took Ipswich Town to a fifth-placed finish in the Premiership in 2001. After an unsuccessful start to his managerial career at Ayr United, Burley’s short spell at Colchester United was ended when his former club hired him in 1994. They stood by him through successive playoff defeats and were rewarded with a place in Europe after their first season back in the top flight. Burley was sacked 18 months after that pinnacle and left his next club, Derby County, in June this year after taking them to the playoffs.

The pressure is now on Romanov to find a suitable replacement. His reputation as a serial sacker, established in Lithuania with Kaunas and now cemented in Scotland, may make that a tricky task. Nevio Scala, who met with Romanov before Burley’s appointment, was unavailable for comment last night and will be an early frontrunner. Romanov is known to favour a director of football alongside a head coach. This senior position was previously held by Anatoly Byshovets during John Robertson ’s tenure at Tynecastle. Byshovets, a former Soviet Union international, is now managing in Siberia and out of favour in Romanov’s court. The position vacated by Burley offers the possibility to break the Old Firm’s stranglehold on Scottish football, but another, equally formidable foe, may have to battled from within by the new man.

“Let me give you an insight into the way I undertake a business venture,” said Romanov as he unveiled his plans for total control on Friday. “I close my eyes and I try to envisage a picture of how I want it to look. If that picture comes together clearly, then I’ll go ahead. Throughout the course of this last year, that picture was coming together as I’d seen it and I felt convinced we were on the right path.”

Romanov has taken Hearts down a detour, and it is now up to him to find the way forward. Burley finished up as Hearts manager with a record that reads: played 12, won nine, drawn two and lost one. His team are top of the Premierleague. The standard has been set.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk