Rix given angry reception
By Roddy Forsyth
(Filed: 08/11/2005)

To an angry and incredulous reception from supporters, Vladimir Romanov - the majority shareholder at Heart of Midlothian - last night presented Graham Rix to the first-team squad as their new coach.

As the former Arsenal and England midfield player arrived at the club's Riccarton training complex on the outskirts of Edinburgh shortly before 6pm, his presence was condemned by the chairman of the Hearts Supporters Trust, Martin Laidlaw.

"The fans are vocal about this and it is not an appropriate appointment," Laidlaw said.

Even before Rix - who was assistant manager at Chelsea under Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli before managing Portsmouth and Oxford United - met the players, the most popular Hearts fan site on the internet was hosting a petition signed by more than 800 protesters.

The petition read: "Do not appoint Graham Rix for any role at Heart of Midlothian. The man is a step in the wrong direction and is not the type of man or manager we want to represent our great club. As well as his well-documented private life, he has achieved very little in his past managerial posts and has been dismissed from his past two employers after only a short time in charge.

"Do not appoint this man. Every signature on this petition agrees with the points stated above. Every person who signs this petition will be bitterly disappointed if this man were to be appointed in any role.

"Please Hearts, do not appoint Graham Rix."

The website was forced offline a few minutes later by the sheer numbers of those trying to get access. Some fans objected that Rix, whose two managerial appointments ended in dismissal after a year, did not have the credentials which they believed were promised by Romanov when he spoke of candidates with the pedigree to take the team forward at home and in Europe.

The second complaint was that Rix, 48, who served six months in prison after being convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old girl in March 1999, was not a suitable character to be associated with the club. Radio programmes, too, were bombarded with calls and texts demanding that Romanov reverse his decision. But the Lithuanian banker - who dismissed the former manager, George Burley, chairman, George Foulkes, and chief executive, Phil Anderton, within 10 days at the end of last month - left his son, Roman, to make a brief response as they emerged from Riccarton.

Referring to Rix, the younger Romanov said: "We feel he has the energy and the ambition." The new coach himself said: "I am delighted to be at this club. I was at Tynecastle on Saturday to see them win against Dundee United and they put on a magnificent performance.

"They are a terrific bunch of lads and I'm very excited to be working with them. It's a massive chance for me and I'm grateful for the opportunity but I will say a lot more at two o'clock tomorrow."

Rix's appointment fulfils the first half of the formula laid down by Vladimir Romanov for a restructuring of the football operation at Tynecastle, the second being the installation of a director of football.

It was notable that Romanov moved against the opinion of the Hearts support just as two significant shareholders - Leslie Deans and Peter McGrail - had agreed to sell him sufficient stock to put him within a hair's breadth of having total control, citing his apparent willingness to have fans represented on the board as a reason to trust his intentions.

Taken from telegraph.co.uk