Element of self-parody in rich man Romanov's rant against 'profiteers'

THERE is nothing original about the claim that modern professional football is pervaded by a satanic influence. But advocates tend to prosecute the case - usually concerning skullduggery among managers, agents and players and their respective slices of transfer fees - in less florid language than that employed by Vladimir Romanov.

Hearts' Lithuanian owner seems to have a sense of drama that equates with Hollywood's idea of how a courtroom scene should be played. It is, of course, quite unrelated to real life.

In his programme notes for the Tynecastle side's Boxing Day match against Falkirk, Romanov made a sweeping condemnation of a number of types he identified as the Devil's spawn - "be they agents, journalists, jealous hangers-on or other wunderkinds (sic)" - who are seeking to "ruin all that is good about the game". He added that "it is the Devil that is driving them forward and they are not going to stop. All that will remain for me is to step aside and bid them farewell on their road to Hell."

Bizarre as all of this appears, there is such a powerful element of (probably unconscious) self-parody in Romanov's outburst that it is difficult to take it too seriously. There is, for example, something almost comical about a man who became mountainously rich through exploitation of the entrepreneurial climate created by the collapse of the Soviet Union referring sneeringly to "profiteers and money-grabbers".

Of much more significance to Hearts on Monday was what occurred on the field of play. The 5-0 tanning of Falkirk was a result that could not have been fantasised by anyone who watched Graham Rix's side give a dispirited and disturbingly subservient performance in the defeat from Rangers at Ibrox a week earlier.

On that day, it was possible to infer that the ebullient, brazen team who had won their opening eight matches in the Premierleague and risen to the top of the table had, in the space of a few weeks, deteriorated beyond retrieval.

Even if they were aided the other day by the ordering-off of Stephen O'Donnell after only 24 minutes, they were only a goal ahead at the time and to add another four was a notable achievement.

Overcoming ten men is almost invariably a difficult assignment, given the latter's tendency to resort to a crowding, defensive strategy. Compare and contrast Hearts' accomplishment with that of Rangers, who, simultaneously, could not beat a Dunfermline side who were a man short and a goal down.

The concession of a stoppage-time penalty kick that brought the East End Park team a 3-3 draw was a setback for the reigning champions, the severity of which seemed to be indicated by Alex McLeish's uncharacteristic carping in the immediate aftermath.

His criticism of referee Craig Thomson over the decision to award Dunfermline a penalty kick and to issue a second yellow card to the offender, Sotirios Kyrgiakos was in itself unusual. But McLeish's complaint about the amount of stoppage time played by the referee was a descent into trivia that seemed to confirm his realisation that the two points lost - leaving Rangers 17 behind Celtic and 13 adrift of Hearts - represented a serious reversal.

Having watched his team beat Hearts and Kilmarnock in their previous two outings, McLeish would have been warming to the idea that enough momentum could be gathered to present a serious challenge at least for the second place in the championship that would guarantee inclusion in the Champions League qualifying next season.

In truth, though, Rangers have not yet done enough to convince the majority of observers that they are capable of the kind of sustained excellence required to wipe out the deficit between themselves and the top two. Even if either or both Hearts and Celtic are guaranteed to be damaged when they collide at Tynecastle on Sunday, the Ibrox side's capacity for faltering - they have yet to win three league games in succession this season - suggests that they are ill-equipped to take advantage.

Taken from the Scotsman