Supporters divided over who should take blame

Some were speechless, while others were keenly looking for answers. Once it had sunk in the finger-pointing began. “Burley could have waited until after today’s game,” offered Sean McAllister. “It was coming, there was a lot of speculation about it when Ibrahim Tall and Samuel Camazzola signed and Burley said he didn’t want them.”

“Romanov wants to pick the team and I don’t think Burley was prepared to take that,” surmised Stephen Banks, who was at the game with his wife and family. “But this will make the players want to show they can still do the business.”

Indeed they did, comfortably disposing of Dunfermline with goals from Rudi Skacel and Roman Bednar. The action on the field provided a temporary distraction at least but still messages pinged between supporters’ mobile phones. There was a faint hope that the promised announcement from the board, to be given at 6pm, would shed some light on the situation. However, the prepared statement merely confirmed that Burley had left the club.

From there, it was where now for Hearts? Internet messageboards and fans’ websites were buzzing with misinformation and theory. Some registered their firm support for Vladimir Romanov, who barely 36 hours previously had officially become the majority shareholder of the club. “We would have been on our way to Murrayfield if it wasn’t for Vladimir Romanov,” opined James Macfarlane on the internet. “Without him there would have been no Burley in the first place, and I still don’t know why he left so it is hard to be too critical of the chairman. He is trying to win the league, he has pumped a lot of money into the club, and while Burley was a tremendous manager he was still only a manager. The position Hearts are in is still better than before Romanov became involved.”

That was the overriding opinion of the contributors once the dust had settled. Fans, as a collective, provide the one constant in a football club, with managers, chairmen, players and even grounds interchangeable, and that has never been more evident than with Hearts in the recent past. Perhaps that is why they fear outliving the club themselves.

“This has the potential of turning into a farce under Romanov,” said one internet contributor last night. “First he undermined a Hearts legend in John Robertson. Recently he has been telling anyone who will listen we are going to win the SPL and Champions League. And now a very good manager has parted ways. I just don’t know what is going on and where will it end.”

The hope for Hearts fans is that it doesn’t.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk