Romanov's revolution claims two more victims

George Foulkes, the chairman, and Phil Anderton, the chief executive, departed the Edinburgh club as abruptly as George Burley, the manager, had done nine days earlier. Both men were ruthlessly culled by Romanov, the Lithuanian millionaire who is the majority shareholder, for “not doing the things I wanted”.

In a move that simply added to the feeling of Tynecastle’s Night of the Long Knives, Romanov announced that his son, Roman Romanov, would replace Foulkes as chairman. The whole affair will deeply disturb the Hearts supporters, who just two weeks ago were joining Foulkes in hailing the de-facto owner’s proposals to buy up the remainder of the shares.

Since then, they have lost their manager, lost their lead at the top of the Bank of Scotland Premierleague and now two key executives. It is scarcely the sort of development that will attract potential managerial successors to Hearts. Claudio Ranieri has pulled out, after his wage demands were deemed too high, while Sir Bobby Robson has been in negotiations with Romanov.

The club issued a statement to the Stock Exchange, saying that Anderton has “ceased to be” the chief executive while Foulkes has resigned. The statement confirmed Romanov’s son, Roman, as Foulkes’ replacement. He will also assume the title of chief executive “on a temporary basis pending a further appointment”. Both men had been at Tynecastle barely a year.

The reasons for them being pushed out of the door were blunt. Through a spokesman, Romanov told the BBC television programme, Reporting Scotland: “They’ve had over one year and not been able to do the things I’ve wanted them to do. They’ve had the funds and all my energy but I’ve not had the response I’ve wanted.”

Foulkes hailed Romanov’s move ten days ago to buy out the remaining shares after increasing his stake from 29.9 per cent to 55 per cent. The Lithuanian is credited with steering Hearts away from bankruptcy when he bought a stake in the club last year. He took over the £20 million debt, transferring it to his bank in Lithuania, and invested heavily in players for this season.

However, the mysterious, still unexplained departure of Burley — a confidentiality agreement was signed — and the exit of Foulkes and Anderton, not to mention to the sacking of the Hearts icon, John Robertson (the club’s record goalscorer), as manager last April after just six months in the job, is beginning to reflect poorly on the Romanov Revolution. “I have no intention of walking away,” Romanov said last night.

The timing of the move is bizarre. Hearts supporters are still licking their wounds after losing their first Premierleague game of the season last Saturday, to Hibernian in a derby in which they were taunted by their rivals for Romanov's boast that they would win the Champions League by 2007.

Foulkes has been an ardent defender of Romanov, saying on the announcement of Romanov’s bid to buy up every share: “Mr Romanov has already done a huge amount for the club as the principal shareholder. How much more can he do as the owner? I would argue that anyone in his position, who is planning to invest huge amounts of money in further player acquisitions in January and the development of the ground, would want the comfort of being in control. I know I certainly would.”

The Lithuanian’s desire for control has been cited as one of the factors that led to Burley’s departure. It remains to be seen if it has also contributed to a fall-out with Foulkes and Anderton.

However, the man who brought the last piece of silverware to Tynecastle, Jim Jefferies, who was manager when the club won the Scottish Cup in 1998, sympathises with the fans.

“The supporters must wonder what’s going on at the club,” Jefferies, now manager of Kilmarnock, said yesterday. “They’ve had a great start to the league, they had a good manager in place and everything seemed to be going along fine for them. It looked like it could be a good year for them. Then in a space of a week there’s mayhem.”

Taken from timesonline.co.uk