The intriguing case of the disappearing manager

GRAHAM SPIERS October 24 2005

People will look at the incredible events at Tynecastle over the past 48 hours and cite the remarkable case of Vladimir Romanov. In truth, though, any dispirited Hearts fans should also consider the intriguing case of George Burley.

The one thing you can say with certainty about Burley is that he is an excellent football coach – just about any footballer you speak to attests as much. But what remains less certain about the now ex-Hearts manager is the rest of the baggage he brings with him.

Hearts are now the second club in five months from which Burley has departed under a cloud. There was mystery surrounding his resignation from Derby County in May. There were allegations of alcohol abuse and inappropriate social hours, both denied by Burley. Certainly, John Sleightholme, the Derby chairman, displayed a remarkable lack of regret over the waygoing of such a good manager.

I am not suggesting for a moment that Burley's social habits had anything to do with his leaving of Tynecastle on Saturday – in fact, like most football observers, I am convinced it was to do with further squabbles with Romanov over players and team selections. Yet Burley's colourful après-ski activities have hardly helped his career recently, given football's infestation with gossips and rumour mongers.

In every other respect Burley deserves nothing but sympathy for the way events have unfolded in Gorgie. This exciting Hearts team is his, with its most integral aspects, such as Rudi Skacel, the vibrant young Czech, being Burley signings. Not only that but, with his talent on the training field, there is a zest and confidence about the way Hearts are playing for which Burley, as much as Romanov, deserves credit.

But why has Burley left Hearts? Frankly, we can piece together a pretty accurate picture of the events which have led to this situation. The Hearts camp will suggest that Burley's alleged willingness to consider other offers was the final straw. But there are other reasons and they do not leave Mr Romanov, impressive figure as he is, in a good light.

Alex McLeish said on Saturday evening: "I'm not that surprised that George has left Hearts . . . not after some of the conversations I've had with him."

Burley, evidently, had outlined to McLeish some of the hassles he was experiencing as manager of Hearts under the interfering Romanov, and that evidence chimes with other comments made by the now departed Hearts manager.

When I spent a few hours with Burley six weeks ago, he intimated to me, too, that all was not well with Romanov. To put it bluntly, Romanov, it appeared, was interfering in Burley's team affairs, at least to the extent of pushing for certain players, whom Romanov had brought to the club, to be selected for matches.

In this context there seems little reason to doubt what happened between last Friday evening and Saturday morning at Tynecastle. On Friday lunchtime, at his usual pre-match press conference, Burley had given no indication at all that anything was amiss. But thereafter, at some point, Romanov has probably once again asked Burley about his team for the following day's game, and may have once more made inappropriate demands.

There are two things to be said about this scenario. The first is that, purely between Romanov and Burley, there can be no doubt about who is the most important figure to Hearts. It is Romanov.

If it came to "irreconcilable differences", as the Hearts chairman, George Foulkes, put it on Saturday night, and Hearts fans were polled on who would have to go, again, there could only be one answer. It would be Burley.

Secondly, however, having established Romanov's pre-eminence, the new Hearts majority shareholder surely needs to learn one lesson. Romanov needs to learn to respect the game of football and the free-thinking autonomy of a football manager.

There may be a case for a cash-providing sugar daddy, such as Romanov, debating the finer points of a team with his manager, but that principle cannot be extended to a Romanov figure actually dictating team selections to his coach. In that scenario you would end up with a Hearts manager, or any other manager in such a situation, being no more than a glove-puppet.

In the specific case of Hearts, we already knew this principle was being stretched to breaking point. When Ibrahim Tall and Samuel Camazzola were brought to the club, Burley went out of his way at their unveiling to state that he knew nothing of at least one of the players, and that Romanov had made the signings.

As a one-off situation, this is whimsical, even slightly comical. If it becomes a trend, though, no manager could live with the implications. It would leave any manager with his hands tied and feeling denuded of his professional pride.

Romanov has ignited the greatest thrill in Scottish football since Graeme Souness came to Rangers in 1986, and for that, just about all of us are glad of his presence. Yet he probably needs to respect football a little more. Until such times as the game evolves into a situation where club owners actually do buy players and select teams, then managers must be allowed to manage.

At Dundee United, for example, chairman Eddie Thompson, infamously, is so passionate about United that he regularly asks Gordon Chisholm about his team selections. Yet even Thompson, while occasionally urging Chisholm to do this or that, leaves the final decision to the manager.

It would appear to be a double-edged sword for Hearts. Romanov, in one sense, is an utter godsend to the club. Yet which coach will now come to work under a regime so alien to the British way?

Just about everyone I know fervently hopes the wheels do not come off the Hearts bandwagon.

There is a strange myth among some Hearts fans, ensnared by their "Weegie" chip-on-the-shoulder mentality, that there is much gnashing of teeth among west coast onlookers who, it is believed, cannot stand seeing the Old Firm being challenged like this.

Well, I have yet to encounter such a beast. Frankly, everybody you meet, from Andy Cameron to Tam Cowan to Gordon Strachan to David Murray, thinks that the Hearts phenomenon is fantastic.

The question is, what now?

Taken from the Herald