Hearts insist they won't sell players

ALAN PATTULLO

HEARTS insisted yesterday that no players would be sold during the January transfer window, despite the warning by the club's own finance director that sales would be inevitable if they lost the support of Vladimir Romanov.

Romanov, who refused to comment on reports that he tried to lure George Burley back to the club ten days after he was axed as manager, is in the process of increasing his stake in Hearts to 72 per cent.

He wants to up this to 75 per cent, a figure which would allow him to delist the club from the London Stock Exchange, and Hearts have written to remaining shareholders offering them 35p per share.

In a Letter of Recommendation to shareholders, finance director Stewart Fraser advises them to sell to Romanov but paints a stark picture of how reliant the club is on the short-term loan provided by UBIG, the offshoot of the bank in which the Lithuanian has a major influence.

As revealed by The Scotsman on Monday, Fraser warned of "radical action which may include... the sale of player contracts" if UBIG withdrew its support.

However, Roman Romanov, the chairman and acting chief executive at Hearts, denied this would happen as a consequence of fiscal concerns. Vladimir's son said that if a player is sold it will only be because another of at least equal standing has been brought in.

"There will be no January sales at Tynecastle and the only reason any player would be sold is if we were guaranteeing a player of similar or better quality would be joining the squad. Clearly there are many clubs that would want us to sell our top players.

"However the players, fans and staff are all in this together and we have ambitions that many people outside the club are finding it difficult to deal with.

"The loans from UBIG will in no way jeopardise the quality and strength of the team. We cannot talk in any detail about the finances of the club as we are in a closed period prior to the public announcement of our annual results and so it would be inappropriate to say more than that at this stage."

The arrival of the Romanovs at Tynecastle has sparked unprecedented turmoil at the club and it showed no signs of abating yesterday with the claim on BBC radio that Burley had been offered his job back following Hearts' defeat by Hibs last month.

It was reported that Romanov had reacted to the meltdown he himself set in motion with the sacking of Burley by seeking to rescind the decision after the loss at Easter Road on 29 October. It was the Gorgie side's first league defeat of the season and meant Celtic were able to usurp Hearts at the top of the SPL after a victory at Dundee United the following day.

Romanov is said to have been panicked by the loss which came just over a week after he and Burley had clashed on the eve of a home fixture against Dunfermline. It led to the club and Burley going their separate ways the following morning, with "irreconcilable differences" cited as the reason why. These differences were reportedly considered reconcilable by Romanov earlier this month, when he sought to bring Burley back.

One theory is that Romanov had been alarmed by the response of fans whose emotions had grown in ferocity from dismay to anger after the departures of two more popular figures, chief executive Phil Anderton and chairman George Foulkes. They were jettisoned on 31 October at the start of another turbulent week at the club.

Burley, it was claimed, remained unmoved by the invitation to return to Tynecastle, and along with his agent Athole Still is continuing to pursue a contractual settlement with Hearts. This has yet to be finalised and displaying signs of frustration at the delay, Still said he could have no comment to make regarding these latest claims. Hearts also refused to comment on the story, although a source said the club were "close to an agreement" with the axed manager.

Silent, too, has been Anderton who lost his job just over a week after Burley. The deposed chief executive is seeking a minimum of £112,000 from Hearts in compensation. Foulkes was also unavailable. The former chairman is said to have suspected that the move was designed to discredit both him and Anderton in the eyes of supporters who are now minded to check whether their club is not in the hands of an absurdist circus troupe.

With the focus returning to football this weekend Hearts expect to sell their full allocation of 1,800 tickets for this weekend's away trip to Pittodrie to play Aberdeen.

The fixture is Graham Rix's first in charge following his controversial appointment as first-team coach last week. Hearts have also been offered 5,000 tickets for next weekend's game against Motherwell and tickets go on public sale on Saturday, 19 November.

Taken from the Scotsman