Once bitten... Anderton limps away

KEVIN FERRIE November 01 2005

To lose one job for which he had declared deep devotion was widely seen as a misfortune, to lose a second in less than a year will be widely regarded as carelessness.

As Phil Anderton ponders how he will be perceived in the wider world today, he must know many, even those who bear no malice towards him, will be questioning the judgment of a man who has held two of Scottish sport's most high-profile posts in the past year but today is back on the dole.

Yet take either situation in isolation, and it is impossible not to have sympathy for the 39-year-old, who started 2005 as the Scottish Rugby Union's chief executive, but who was fired by Hearts yesterday.

Just as it was ludicrous to put a decade of mismanagement at Murrayfield down to the leadership of someone who had been in charge for less than a year, most of which was spent trying to overhaul an arcane governance structure, so the circumstances in which he was attempting to run Hearts were clearly bizarre.

Whether Vladimir Romanov is a more honourable figure under whom to work than some of the former SRU general committee who will have popped champagne corks on hearing of Anderton's sacking last night, is impossible to say. What seems evident is that, while he seemed to have been more comfortable with his working relationship with the Hearts owner than was George Burley, Anderton was probably rather too hasty to get involved in the world of football administration.

However, that was the big attraction. On leaving the SRU, he made no secret that his passion for involvement in sport meant he was in no hurry to return to routine business life, despite a stellar career in marketing during which he introduced the Diet Coke hunk to the world.

At Hearts, he had been given a hands-on role in the search for Burley's successor. It was clearly a job he relished but it also left him susceptible to the Lithuanian's capriciousness and that will lead to speculation in the coming days over the exact reasons for his sacking.

Reports last night suggested the pair had disagreed over a potential candidate for the vacant position. Certainly, yesterday evening's announcement that Anderton had "ceased to be" chief executive because he had, in Romanov's words, "not been able to do the things I've wanted to do for Hearts", reeked of euphemism.

In the immediate aftermath of Burley's exit from Tynecastle, both Anderton and George Foulkes had gone to great lengths to present a united front and create the impression that it was business as usual at the Edinburgh club.

As the days passed, a number of leading coaches were linked with the vacant managerial position and each time Anderton reaffirmed his commitment to finding the best man for the job.

"We have had some very prestigious names who have been put forward," he said. "One of the names which has come up is Sir Bobby Robson. I will certainly be in touch with him – at the minimum to say 'hello' – and we will take it from there."

Anderton's staunch defence of Romanov in the wake of Burley's departure makes his sacking all the more difficult to fathom.

"There has been speculation about so-called 'interference' in team matters under George," he said. "My answer to that is, if interference means resolving to stay at Tynecastle instead of going to a rugby stadium, and bringing top-quality European players to this club, and taking Hearts to the top of the SPL . . . if that is called 'interference' then I say, bring it on, let's have some more."

Anderton's critics in the SRU will seize upon what has happened at Tynecastle with some relish, claiming it can be no coincidence that any one individual can have found himself involved in two such fiascos in such a short time.

Questions will again be raised over business practices that would seem odd in most organisations, but had to be seen in the context of the impossible working environment at Murrayfield where confidentiality and integrity had become meaningless.

What is certain is that mud will now stick and once seen as the man with the Midas touch it may be that for all his clever money-making ploys Phil Anderton's legacy to sports lovers in Edinburgh's west end is no more than a pile of fool's gold.

Taken from the Herald