Calm in the storm

Vladimir Romanov met a delegation of five senior players immediately after the Aberdeen match to address their concerns about his interference in team selection. Then Duffy, who was driving along the M8 towards his home in Glasgow, received a phone call summoning him back to Edinburgh. By Monday, his promotion was announced publicly and his duties described as “encompassing all player contractual, development and communication matters”. Duffy, whose 14 months at Easter Road are not remembered fondly by their supporters, as he was sacked with the club heading towards the First Division, had been shuffled like a pawn.

He now occupies a buffering position between Romanov and Graham Rix, the head coach and friend who brought Duffy to the club. It is a role of protectionism, of trying to assert some perspective to jostling personalities. The players are likely to have had a persuasive input into this sudden progression, having grown alarmed at Romanov’s insistent presence and identified the considerate good nature in Duffy. There are sensitivities amongst supporters at his previous connection with their city rivals, but Hartley, too, was once at Hibs and few players are now more gloriously treasured by the Tynecastle fans.

“I know the supporters and maybe the media think it was a surprise,” he says of Duffy’s elevation. “But the gaffer trusts him 100%. Probably because he’s a former Hibs manager he’ll be under more pressure, but I’m sure Jim will handle that. If you come here and do well, the fans forget about it.

It lets Rix concentrate on the training side and picking the team and Duff will have all the other pressure of getting players and answering to Mr Romanov. I think that will take some pressure off Rix.”

Hartley was not part of the five-man delegation, but his opinion would have stalked the meeting along with those of Steven Pressley, Neil McCann, Rudi Skacel, Takis Fyssas and Edgaras Jankauskas. Rix granted Hartley time off last week because he is now serving a three-match league suspension for kicking out at Ross Wallace in the defeat by Celtic at Tynecastle last month. The midfielder has been an irrepressible force this season, but energy is never endless and this has been a cluttered campaign, including regular demands from the national team. Hearts need his flame to continue burning brightly.

At a supporters’ forum last Thursday evening, Rix and McCann were broadly interrogated by fans, with many of the queries centered on team selection. Rix had told his players before the game against Dundee United two weeks ago that Romanov had selected the team — with Robbie Neilson and Andy Webster dropped — and that he was powerless to intervene. Yet his responses to the supporters were emphatic, which perhaps suggests that he feels emboldened by Duffy’s appointment. The essence of the exchanges was that he had told the players who were signed during the transfer window that they are not fit enough and will have to train intensively before they will be considered for the first team.

The matter of Romanov and who picks the side was put down to a breakdown in communications. So is Hartley comfortable that the matter has now been resolved? “At the end of the day, we’ve just got to go out and do our jobs,” he shrugs non-committally. “We know the situation that’s happened, but we’ve just got to win games. We’ve not got any problems with Mr Romanov, we get on fine with him, and we get on fine with the manager.”

The shifting realities of this situation, the swelling manifestation of Romanov’s will and the seemingly impulsive appointment of Duffy, are emblematic of Hearts’ season. Questions have gathered at Tynecastle like the crush of supporters on match days. The SFA have written to the club seeking clarification on the position of Romanov, who is clearly making the decisions at the club but is not on the board (although his son, Roman, is the chairman and interim chief executive, and his niece, Julija Goncaruk, is a director). Last week, the SFA’s general purposes committee also deferred a decision on whether Rix is a fit and proper person to be involved in Scottish football after asking the club for more information about his conviction as a sex offender.

As if to prolong the intrigue, Liutauras Varanavicius, the president of the Lithuanian football federation, then resigned as a non-executive director at Tynecastle. An Edinburgh councillor also warned the club that they must soon submit a planning application to rebuild the main stand if they are to meet their self-imposed strategy to begin the work at the end of the season. Many promises emanating from Hearts this season have had a habit of floating away unheeded. Their supporters must feel torn, their sensibilities stretched between what happens on the pitch and what might be happening out of their earshot in the boardroom. They will relish the prospect of retaining second place in the Premierleague, which brings Champions League qualification, and playing Partick Thistle in the Scottish Cup quarter-final on Saturday, yet wonder where Romanov’s story is ultimately going to end.

The team has shown its fallibility under strain in recent weeks but Rix, and Duffy, may yet be astute enough to squeeze as much as they can from the coming months by drawing the players tightly together. “He ix is a great coach,” insists Hartley. “We want to go and do something for him. Not just him, but the owner, ourselves and the supporters. We’re desperate to win something.”

You wonder if even that would provide guarantees for the head coach and the director of football. Trying to identify the realities at Hearts is like negotiating a maze blindfolded. At least Rix and Duffy can rely on each other.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk