Hearts have a director of football already, claims Romanov jnr

HEARTS claimed last night that they have found a director of football who is currently working for the club "incognito".

Roman Romanov, the Tynecastle side's chairman and acting chief executive, said he hoped to soon go public with the appointment but dismissed reports that it was Craig Brown.

Romanov said the director of football was well known in British football but did not reveal his identity or nationality.

Addressing a meeting of the Hearts Shareholders Association, the Lithuanian also explained some of the reasons behind the sacking of Phil Anderton as chief executive and confirmed work on a new stand would begin at the end of the season.

But it was his revelations about the club's director of football which caused most interest among the 400 shareholders in the Gorgie Suite, with Romanov making it clear that Brown, the former Scotland manager, was not the man for Hearts.

"First of all, it [the Craig Brown story] is not true," the chairman said. "We already have a director of football working incognito and hopefully we'll announce him soon. He is helping us at the moment and is well known in UK football."

Hearts have been trying to assemble a two-pronged management structure since they decided to dispense with the services of George Burley in October. On 7 November Graham Rix was appointed head coach and Romanov said the next day that he hoped to have a director of football in place within a fortnight. The search has taken longer than expected but appears to be nearing an end.

While Rix is responsible for training and selecting the team, the director of football will be in charge of signing players.

Romanov, son of Hearts' majority shareholder Vladimir, was also quizzed about the sudden dismissal last month of Anderton and subsequent departure of chairman George Foulkes.

Romanov junior made it clear he and his father had been unimpressed by the pair's work, most notably in progressing the rebuilding of Tynecastle. He said the frustrations persuaded Vladimir to increase his shareholding in the club.

Roman said: "Vladimir owned 30 per cent of the club. It was never his intention to own 70 per cent or more. [But] it got to the situation where the owner made decisions but was told he couldn't do that because he only owned 30 per cent. That was the root of the problem. We let them run the club for nine months but there were no results with the city council, for example. So we decided to buy more shares and get new management in."

Roman Romanov said he had met with the City of Edinburgh Council yesterday and that he hoped to proceed with plans to knock down the main stand in May. Work on a new stand will take a year, he estimated, and would leave Hearts with an increased capacity.

Asked about his father's ruthlessness in ridding the club of a manager, chief executive and chairman within ten days, Roman replied: "Vladimir is seen as the man with the sharpest axe for sacking people but there were very deep reasons associated with doing what we did. Hopefully in time we can explain that."

On the pitch, Hearts received mixed news yesterday when it emerged that striker Edgar Jankauskas is likely to miss tomorrow's match with Motherwell at Fir Park because of a hamstring injury, but Roman Bednar has a chance of returning for the first time since September.

Taken from the Scotsman