BURLEY: THE LAST INTERVIEW
Boss was full of hope for future of the club just hours before he was so dramatically kicked out
By Gary Ralston

GEORGE BURLEY revealed his plans for the future of Heartsonlyhoursbeforehe was ousted from the club Burleywas in expansivemood duringhisusual Fridayafternoon press conference as he spoke about the progress he still hoped to make at Tynecastle.

He had outlined some of the markets he hoped to raid during the January transfer window and insisted the Jambos would not be held to ransom by greedy clubs, players or agents.

Burley left Cumnock Academy as a 15-year-old in 1972 to sign for Ipswich Town and he also spoke about his desire to bring top young players to Tynecastle for longer every week.

He was in his usual good form and gave no hint of the underlying tensions that would surface when he met Romanov a few hours later.

On the hunt for new players, he insisted he was looking for similar value but even better standards than those who had already been brought to the club.

He also revealed agents and players from across Europe had become attracted to a club they would have never previously considered.

Paying tribute to his Hearts paymaster, Burley said: "Mr Romanov will not throw money away at players and those we have brought in so far have been tremendous - and we've not paid silly amounts for them.

"As far as Hearts as a club are concerned, the recent attention has been fantastic"When people see we're top of the league and hear how things are going, then players such as Fredi Bobic are happy to come on trial which was maybe not the case two seasons ago.

"The squad have been great and who would have imagined we'd go 10 games undefeated?

"But we've got to keep improving and developing.

"We're looking at all markets for new players. We're looking at quality and if clubs are asking for silly money we'll not go there.

"We're also looking at young Scots but we aren't inundated with top-class Scots. Look at recent Under-21 results. They've had one win in over two years but it's up to us to raise the standards and it can be done.

"I still think the standard in the SPL needs to be lifted and it's up to ourselves and other clubs to do that, and we believe we're doing it here."

Burley was already in talks with Hearts Academy director John Murray and local education bosses to improve the lot of youngsters.

Burley said: "The facilities will help us achieve our goals. But we've still got to push more and that's why I advocate getting promising young players out of school earlier.

"We can get youngsters here for two or three nights a week but I'd also like to them for a day or an afternoon, as happens abroad.

"If a youngster was gifted in music he'd be allowed to go to specialist classes, so why not football?

"We have spoken to headmasters and they are happy to listen."

Unfortunately for Burley, later that evening he got a less friendly ear from Romanov

Taken from the Daily Record