Determination blinds Romanov vision for Hearts

AFTER several decades in politics George Foulkes probably thought he had seen it all. Following a turbulent start to his time as Hearts chairman he was certainly hoping for a long period of stability once Vladimir Romanov had bought out Chris Robinson. Instead, over this past week he has been at the centre of unprecedented events at Tynecastle.

Now Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, the former Labour MP has witnessed a few Cabinet reshuffles in his time. They invariably happen when the government is at a low ebb and in need of some fresh blood. They do not occur when there is a healthy lead in the polls, the current Cabinet has only been in office for a few months, and the economy is booming.

But that is exactly what has happened at Hearts, with Phil Anderton and Foulkes himself following George Burley out the door. By the time the manager went a fortnight ago, Foulkes realised that the atmosphere at the club had changed, and that Romanov was likely to make more radical alterations.

When they occurred on Monday, and he and Anderton also went, Foulkes was understandably embittered. Having made it plain to his fellow-directors that he would resign if the chief executive were ousted, he was particularly piqued that Roman Romanov, Vladimir's son, put forward a motion at the board meeting to remove him before he could formally offer his resignation.

In the intervening five days, much of the debate about the implications of Monday's events for Hearts has been starkly one-sided: to some, Romanov has shown himself to be a ruinous megalomaniac; for others, including many of the club's supporters who are desperate for the on-field success to continue, the Lithuanian businessman deserves complete backing.

Foulkes himself, despite the natural tendency to bite back, offers a more complex analysis. Yes, he has accused Romanov of behaving "like a dictator", and can back up the claim with a wealth of anecdotal evidence. On the other hand, he has had enough dealings with Romanov to be entirely convinced he sincerely wants to make Hearts far bigger and more successful.

He is, as he has admitted, in a dilemma. He wants Hearts to do well, yet deprecates the methods Romanov is willing to use. And, although he feels he must speak out against the majority shareholder, he knows the alternative to Romanov would have been bleak.

"My serious doubts only began three or four weeks ago, from the time Vladimir began spending longer in Edinburgh, when it became clear that his management style was going to be rather more ruthless than I'd expected," Foulkes said this week in his office by the House of Lords.

"He felt frustrated that his people on the board were not getting things done quickly enough. Everyone has tholed the things he's done, because he's been the saviour of the club. He was and remains the only show in town. If he hadn't come along we would be playing at Murrayfield now before crowds of 7,000, we'd be struggling to get into the top six."

As such remarks show, in some respects Foulkes's position has not changed. He remains convinced, for instance, that some of the antipathy towards Romanov arises from two factors - one is xenophobia, the other is the west-coast bias in parts of Scottish football and in the media.

He finds it as galling as the most hardcore Hearts fan to be told by self-appointed experts that the club's bubble has burst, that it was always going to end in tears.

While sure that getting rid of Burley and Anderton was an unjustified and capricious act that did nothing for the club, he is certain that Romanov is desperate to succeed with Hearts.

"We wanted to be in a position to challenge the Old Firm, and then he came along with this vision. And to be fair, he still has his vision. But he wants to do it his way.

"I think Hearts will become an eastern European kind of structure, and it might prosper like that. Some of the teams from eastern Europe are doing very well. It may be a success, and Hearts supporters, including me, will rejoice if it is a success, and I'll agree that he's proven he can do it a different way.

"As I said, he remains the only show in town, and whether we like his management style or not we just have to accept it, and pray that it brings success on the park. He is determined, and he is fanatical about football. I genuinely think that any suggestion he is going to sell Hearts off and turn the ground into flats or run away is not the case.

"He has an absolutely clear idea of what he wants, and if people don't go along with him he pushes them aside. He is determined to succeed with Hearts."

The problem, however, is that Romanov can be so driven he ends up making rash decisions which at best retard the progress he is so eager to achieve. Foulkes believes he becomes so obsessive about certain issues that his judgment is clouded, including one subject which may have influenced his falling out with Burley.

"He also has a strong belief - and I agree with him, though not necessarily in the way he wants to tackle it - that agents have far too great an influence in football. He wants to counteract that influence, and I can understand that. He was obsessed, for example, that Burley might be tapped by another club."

Another obsession was Burley's team selections, especially concerning the central midfielder Julien Brellier and the wide player Saulius Mikoliunas. "Vladimir didn't come down to the dressing room and say 'This is the team you must select'. But he went on and on and on about Julien Brellier. After a match he kept saying 'Brellier - three out of ten. We need another player to play alongside him to get three out of ten, then that would be six out of ten, ha ha'. Brellier was man of the match a number of times he did that.

"The Lithuanian players are his adopted sons. Whenever he's over he meets with them - they're his boys. Miko not being played rankles with him. Miko was a hero last season, and if he was doing well of course Burley would have played him."

As Anderton has been negotiating a severance deal which may include a confidentiality clause, the erstwhile chief executive has not given his own version of events. Foulkes has therefore taken upon himself to speak up on behalf of his colleague, especially after claims by Romanov and his associates that there were unspecified areas in which Anderton was not getting the job done. At the board meeting [last Monday] Roman Romanov didn't even say Phil didn't tick all the boxes. He gave no explanation at all for sacking him. I can't think what boxes he didn't tick.

"The City of Edinburgh Council officials who were dealing with Phil on the redevelopment of the stadium said they had never had such good relations with Hearts. Sergei [the director Sergejus Fedotovas] and Chris Robinson were supposed to be doing the work on the new stadium, but it's only when Phil got involved that everything got moving.

The astonishing thing is that when the share offer was launched it said Romanov has full confidence in the management team and that changed in ten days."

One factor which probably contributed to that change was the amount of positive press Anderton was receiving. Romanov referred to Anderton as "the wunderkind", or child prodigy, clearly irked by the attention he was getting. Having worked with the four Lithuanians on the board, Foulkes believes that they show Romanov prefers to work with people who will not question him.

"Sergei, for example, is the jewel in the crown of Romanov's team. He is a man of integrity and a gentleman. But he works for Romanov and he has to do what he's told whether he likes it or not.

"And I think in the case of dismissing Phil he didn't like it. I looked him straight in the eye and said 'Do you know what you're doing? You could be jeopardising the share offer' - he negotiated it with British Linen.

"He's not been well recently. I'm not a doctor or a psychiatrist, but I suspect the pressure he's been under won't have helped his health.

"Romanov demands that people work very long hours. That's the other thing about Phil - he hardly had a day off, and worked weekends too of course. When he did go off for a few days' holiday - which he was entitled to do - Romanov was fuming.

"Romanov does it differently. He has a yacht in the Mediterranean, and he goes and works from there. He expects his executives to work morning, noon and night.

"Roman Romanov does what he's told. Julija [Goncaruk], his niece, is the same. Liutauras [Varanavicius] has a mind of his own, but he knows where his interests lie." Foulkes's own interests still lie, as they have long done, with the Labour Party and with Hearts. Some more blinkered fans have castigated him for speaking out this week, claiming that his willingness to talk to the media was tantamount to disloyalty. Those critics have not only forgotten the crucial role he played in preventing Robinson's proposed move to Murrayfield, they have also failed to grasp the point that it is his willingness to talk to all and sundry which made him such a successful chairman of the club.

The divide between directors and supporters had never been wider than when Foulkes came in as chairman in April 2004, and by being accessible and courteous he quickly began to bridge it. Such qualities also helped persuade Romanov to stick with Hearts through months of painstaking negotiations. All Foulkes can do now is sit back and hope all his efforts were worthwhile.

Taken from the Scotsman