Supporters should place trust in Romanov's judgment and give new recruit chance to take team forward

LESLIE DEANS

THE backlash to the appointment of Graham Rix as first team coach at Hearts has been absolutely breathtaking, so it was perhaps no surprise to see the story appear as the main headline on Reporting Scotland the other night.

Readers of The Scotsman will know that I have called on Hearts fans to support the changes being made by the club's majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov, changes which I believe will make Hearts stronger in the long term. Despite all the concerns voiced by fans and the media, it is still my opinion that we have to trust Mr Romanov's judgment, and we have to give Rix the chance to prove his worth as a coach.

After the huge effort people put into removing Chris Robinson to stop the ground being sold and the club moving to Murrayfield, I thought we had got the whole Hearts family together again.

We went to the top of the league, attracted sell-out crowds, and the debt position was stabilised by virtue of having friendly creditors rather than unfriendly creditors.

There has been drama since then of course, with the departure of George Burley, Phil Anderton and George Foulkes, but having met Mr Romanov last week to discuss these matters I know he has a good business plan for Hearts and he had his reasons for making the changes he has made.

He talked about strengthening the squad in January - he has already identified at least one new player who he wants to bring to Tynecastle - and that can only be good news for Hearts fans. It has not exactly harmed Hearts that the owner wants to choose which players come to the club. Compare the quality of player we have today with what we have had in the past - it's like night and day.

So I'm sad that events this week have brought such a negative reaction from Hearts supporters, after everything seemed to be going in the right direction. I thought that through all coming together we were presenting a real challenge to Celtic and Rangers. They will be rubbing their hands with glee at Celtic Park and at Ibrox as they watch us tearing ourselves apart.

The focus on Rix's personal life, and in particular his conviction for a sex offence, is inevitable because of his position in public life. He said at Tuesday's press conference that he didn't want to pay for his mistake for the rest of his life, although I am sure that he is well aware that he will take his guilt to the grave.

But you don't have to be a solicitor to realise that it is unfair to deny a man the chance to rebuild his life if he has accepted he has done wrong, and has been punished for his crime.

It happened, he was wrong, and he has served his penance. He was a 40-year-old man who should have known better. Let us, however, keep this in perspective. Graham Rix is not a serial rapist, and he pled guilty rather than have the victim and her family face the ordeal of a trial.

If he was a serial sex offender this would be a bigger concern for an employer, but Roman Romanov has said 'give this man a second chance'. Whilst I totally understand the abhorrence of parents and the difficulty of explaining this to their children, the decision to employ Rix has now been made and I hope that he can indeed rebuild his life and repay his debt to society.

Rix was one of the leading coaches in English football before his offence, and he will still have much to offer. It's clear that his best work was when he was first-team coach at Chelsea under a director of football, and Mr Romanov is putting him into a role where he has a record of success.

In the more traditional role of manager at Portsmouth and Oxford United, he was not so successful. If we complement his appointment with a high-profile director of football we have the structure that is successful on the continent.

Why shouldn't that work here in Scotland? All too often we bemoan how far we have fallen behind European nations we used to sweep aside at club level. Let there be criticism of Rix if Hearts are in freefall three months from now, but let's judge the man on his merits at that time, not now.

One final point for those who doubt the direction of the club: without Vladimir Romanov, we would be penniless. We would be bumping around in the bottom half of the league. In front of crowds of 8,000. At an empty Murrayfield Stadium. With Chris Robinson still in charge.

Any takers?

Taken from the Scotsman