Hearts carry on beating after talking to Robson

Ewan Murray at Tynecastle
Thursday October 27, 2005
The Guardian

Hearts are close to filling their managerial vacancy and may even do so within days after holding initial talks with Sir Bobby Robson and other candidates before the team maintained their unbeaten league record last night.

An Edgaras Jankauskas goal in the first half was enough to make it two wins in a week for the club but the talk in the subdued stands still centred on the possibility of Robson taking a job that he turned down in June.

The club's chief executive Phil Anderton confirmed before the match he had spoken with Robson and refused to rule out an appointment before Saturday's derby with Hibernian.

That represents a significant change from their position on Monday, when Hearts seemed willing to wait a matter of weeks before naming a successor to George Burley, who left the club last Friday. It not only suggests progress has been made but that Burley's potential replacement is currently unemployed.

Having spent yesterday in London, where he spoke by telephone with the former England manager, Anderton was in an upbeat mood. "Bobby Robson is someone I have enormous respect for and we would have had him at the club before if his personal circumstances had been different," he said. "Whether it comes to fruition on this occasion, time will tell.

"The important thing is we have people out there saying they would like to join the club and I'm confident we have people who are right for this club. But there are other people involved in the process.

"We're not going to sit on our hands and it's the top priority for me to bring all the men round a table. After the discussions I've had yesterday and today, I'm pretty confident about doing that."

When asked if it was possible a manager would be in place before Saturday, Anderton added: "I can't look into a crystal ball but it's possible."

Hearts, under the guidance of their caretaker manager John McGlynn, began strongly and Kilmarnock were powerless in the 35th minute to prevent a precise diagonal pass from Rudi Skacel reaching Jankauskas, who drove the ball from 12 yards underneath Graeme Smith to ensure Hearts' three-point lead at the top of the SPL remained intact.

It was McGlynn's second win in five days in charge of the side but he admits he doesn't know what the future holds. "The club are looking for someone to bring Champions League football," he said, "and these guys are in the top bracket. I would like to think we've bought ourselves time to get to Saturday, because although it wasn't our best performance of the season you have to get through games like this."

For the Kilmarnock manager Jim Jefferies, who watched his side lose by the same scoreline to Celtic on Sunday, there was more frustration.

"Hearts deserve to be at the top of the league because nobody has beaten them yet," he said. "Sometimes you don't play well and have to grind out results, and they did that against a team who made them work very hard for it."

Taken from the Guardian/Observer