Hearts' brief respite as Rix picks team
STUART BATHGATE

HEARTS' preliminary squad for this afternoon's match at home to Aberdeen includes just about every first-team player who is neither injured nor suspended, and is therefore not a significant selection in itself. What is noteworthy, however, is the fact that it was all Graham Rix's own work.

The first-team coach has yet to have a meeting with Vladimir Romanov, the club's owner, to thrash out the issues over team selection which have emerged in the past week. But for today's game at least, the problem should not re-emerge.

"We've actually got a squad of 21 for tomorrow," Rix said. "That's my squad. I fully expect to pick the team for tomorrow."

That should mean a return for Andy Webster, whose exclusion at Tannadice on Tuesday night had Romanov's signature scrawled right across it. The breaking-off of contractual negotiations between the player's agent and Romanov is understood to have led to the exclusion of a player who had been an ever-present.

Rix knows he is in a weak position, and will therefore not adopt a hard line in any negotiations with his employer. Instead, he appears set to suggest that the owner confine his intervention in selection to a couple of places in the side, allowing continuity in the bulk of the team. "There are lots of pluses and minuses for a rotation system," the coach said. "For some people it works, for other players it doesn't. I just think if you've got confidence in the team that's going out there, that's the No1 factor. I look at Chelsea, and what a fantastic squad they've got - and yet week in week out it's more or less the same eight players. The same goalkeeper, the same back four ... the backbone of the team is usually the same."

Asked if he meant that he would feel more at ease with that situation at Hearts, and would not mind so much if the other, rotating positions were open to internal debate, Rix replied in the affirmative. "Yeah, absolutely. I discuss things with everybody at the football club - coaching staff, even the kit man.

"We [ie he and Romanov] discuss things all the time. Not only footballing matters, but the club in general.

"If there's any problems I'm sure we'll sit down and work together to sort them out. He's a busy man, and it's not like I can pick up the telephone and just have a conversation with him, because of the language barrier.

"My contact has been through Roman, mostly. But Roman was in Russia last week, he's been all over Europe, he's a busy guy as well. I'm sure things will be thrashed out and the lines of communication will be better."

It is significant that the issue of team selection arose in the absence of Romanov junior, a more self-disciplined and rational figure than his father. By agreeing groundrules, Rix hopes that he can prevent a recurrence of that issue the next time the elder Romanov breezes into the club in the absence of his son, who as chairman and acting chief executive is ostensibly in charge.

"I think [Vladimir] is coming over for the game," continued Rix, who also said he had not spoken to the owner since the 1-1 draw at Tannadice.

"I don't want to make a big thing of what's gone on this week. It's been a tough week."

Although the matter boiled over on Tuesday, it began simmering three days earlier, just before the Scottish Cup match against Aberdeen. Takis Fyssas and Rudi Skacel were supposedly sent home with what Rix said was flu or something similar, but it is widely believed they were omitted on the owner's orders. The coach declined to clarify the matter when asked to do so yesterday.

"I'm not going to comment on it, because what's gone is gone. What's happened the last week or so has happened. My main focus now, and has been since Tuesday, is tomorrow's game.

"The players can't let anything get in the way of what has been a great season for them, and their support for me has been pleasing to say the least. They've had a few things to contend with, and they've shown an inner strength and togetherness. It never even entered my head to walk away. Why should I? I'm in a great job at a great football club, I've got a great bunch of players who are playing well. I'd be mad to walk away."

Craig Gordon, meanwhile, said he hoped the club would do everything in its power to dissuade Webster from walking away when his contract expires at the end of next season. "It would be good if he did stay, and I'm sure Hearts will do everything possible to try and keep him here," said the goalkeeper, who has been wearing glare-reducing contact lenses in training.

The planned meeting between senior players and Romanov may go some way to persuading Webster he could have a future at the club. A Hearts spokesman said yesterday that that meeting, although scheduled for "after the game", could be held tomorrow instead of this evening.

Taken from the Scotsman