Hearts' desire for new direction intensifies after limp derby show

Ewan Murray at Easter Road
Monday October 31, 2005
The Guardian

Hearts have stepped up their efforts to bring in a director of football before the end of this week after Saturday's defeat by Hibernian, coupled with Celtic's victory at Tannadice yesterday, knocked the Edinburgh club off the top of the SPL for the first time this season.

Sir Bobby Robson remains a leading contender, but his insistence on no interference from the boardroom is likely to take negotiations into Wednesday at the earliest. The club's chairman George Foulkes said yesterday: "Saturday's result puts us under a bit more pressure to move quickly, but we must not compromise on the quality of the candidate. Sir Bobby remains in our thoughts. Having someone in place by this midweek is possibly a little optimistic, but hopefully we can do something before the weekend."

The former England manager is favoured by many at Tynecastle as he would bring in his own coaching staff. Hearts are keen that their director of football chooses his own head coach and Robson may have John Carver in mind, who was his assistant at Newcastle and is now at Leeds. Foulkes also denied reports that another former England manager, Kevin Keegan, was in the frame.

Claudio Ranieri, the former Chelsea manager, is out of the running after failing to impress Romanov during an interview on Thursday and demanding a higher basic salary than the Lithuanian banker was willing to pay. Hearts are looking to offer a highly lucrative and performance-related bonus scheme, but a base wage of around £400,000 was too little to tempt the 53-year-old Ranieri.

Ossie Ardiles and the former Holland assistant manager Wim van Hanegem have made contact with Hearts, but will only be seriously considered if moves to bring in Robson or another similarly high-profile candidate, such as Ottmar Hitzfeld, fall through.

Two late goals in as many minutes from Guillaume Beuzelin and Garry O'Connor were enough to send Easter Road into a state of delirium on Saturday, after Hearts' Lithuanian striker Edgaras Jankauskas was sent off during a tempestuous derby. Romanov dropped by the visiting dressing room after the match to thank his players, but in truth they never did enough against a Hibs team who outfought and outthought their opponents.

Hibs are now six points clear of Rangers in third place after gaining revenge for their 4-0 defeat at Tynecastle in August. "We've shown everybody since that game that we've come on leaps and bounds," said the Hibs manager Tony Mowbray.

Man of the match: Kevin Thomson (Hibs)

Taken from the Guardian/Observer