Two sides to a story with no room for compromise

STUART BATHGATE

STUART BATHGATE
CHIEF SPORTS WRITER

GEORGE Burley did not apply for the managerial vacancy at Hearts caused by the departure of John Robertson, but was courted by the club after Sir Bobby Robson turned them down and Nevio Scala said the timing was not right for him. Although Burley supposedly bought into Vladimir Romanov's grand vision, throughout his brief tenure there was a feeling that he retained a certain scepticism about the Lithuanian's project at Tynecastle.

He quickly forged a good relationship with the bulk of the playing squad and was warmly welcomed by the supporters, but could give the impression of being less than wholly sold on Romanov's project. That is not to question his commitment - his results speak for themselves, and having won three-quarters of his matches he is statistically the most successful manager in Hearts' history - but to suggest that, for a variety of reasons, he never completely settled in Edinburgh.

Although born and raised in Ayrshire, the former Scotland full-back has deep roots in East Anglia. He joined Ipswich Town as a teenager and also made his managerial reputation at Portman Road, taking the club to fifth in the Premiership.

His family did not move from the area to Scotland when he took the job at Hearts, and he let it be known he had no intention of selling his house there. His Edinburgh residence was a city-centre flat.

Having only been given a two-year contract by the club's board, Burley, understandably, would not want to sever his connections with the Ipswich area too hastily. For Romanov, however, such a refusal to commit completely to the Hearts project could easily have been seen as disloyalty.

Such suspicions might quickly have been dispelled had the manager and the club's principal shareholder struck up a good relationship, but instead their every meeting seemed to engender grounds for mutual mistrust. And, when two strong-willed men clash, one an employer , the other an employee, there is only going to be one winner.

The signings of Ibrahim Tall and Samuel Camazzola brought about the first public dissent. After stating he had not seen those two Romanov recruits play, Burley admitted the situation was "not ideal". At the time, a positive spin on such a remark might have been that nothing is ideal for a football manager short of being given a blank cheque, but as the weeks went on the discontent simmered.

When news of his departure broke on Saturday, the majority reaction within Scottish football was to side with Burley. Pundits and supporters alike said that no manager with any pride would be able to put up with the sort of interference in recruitment and team selection which Burley was supposedly getting from Romanov.

Football people look after their own, and it was no surprise to hear a succession of SPL managers express their sympathy for Burley. Had the interviewees been Lithuanian businessmen, however, rather than Scottish football people, a different picture might well have been painted.

The perspective from Kaunas or Vilnius, or indeed from the office of any non-football entrepreneur, would have seen things very much from Romanov's point of view. As the man pumping money into Hearts, first saving them from being forced to sell their ground then turning them into realistic league contenders, Romanov, according to this line of reasoning, had every right to "interfere".

But you have to work in the real world, not in some ideal realm, and the trouble for Romanov was that the real world in which Burley lives is one where football managers recruit players and select the team. The Baltic businessman has a network of scouts who span the planet, and found it hard to understand why Burley did not wish to avail himself of that expertise.

As it was, both men have been vindicated in their choice of players. Julien Brellier, whose proposed recruitment Burley had to justify to Romanov in writing, has slotted into the midfield holding role. Camazzola, the Brazilian whom Burley had not seen, has made the right midfield berth his own and has been getting better with every game.

Given that situation, those with good will towards both parties would surely have sought to get both men to show a little more respect to each other. The advice to Burley could have been along those lines: You're well paid, your reputation is burgeoning, you're being supplied with some talented players - swallow your pride and stick in there. The message to Romanov would have been similar: The team is undefeated, the players rate the manager, his own signings have been vindicated - swallow your pride and give him some room for manoeuvre.

If anyone did try to deliver such advice, though, it surely fell on deaf ears. As Hearts have gone from strength to strength on the field, so Romanov has sought to accelerate their improvement, which has meant more pressure on Burley.

If he is to avoid a recurrence of this falling-out, Romanov must agree a very clear demarcation of roles with the next manager. If he fails to do this, his reputation as a serial sacker will grow, and he will not find it so easy next time to recruit the calibre of candidates who are now apparently willing to try their hand at taking over from Burley.

Taken from the Scotsman