By Alan Campbell

THERE has only been one certainty at Tynecastle this season. When the latest head coach is sacked, or the club again thrown into turmoil, it is the reassuring figure of Steven Pressley who will emerge to soothe the weeping wounds.

If he ever tires of football, there’s a role for the Hearts captain as a company doctor. Almost single-handedly, his sure touch has kept the club from fragmenting. That they could yet win the Tennent’s Scottish Cup and a Champions League place is as much due to his diplomatic skills as it is to Vladimir Romanov’s wealth.

On the eve of today’s semi-final against Hibs at Hampden, Pressley admits that the tensions caused by Hearts’ soap opera existence have affected his own health. Recently he was laid low for three weeks by a virus, and he points out: “Stress is a factor in becoming ill, and I’ve been slightly vulnerable for the last couple of years.

“I take the club personally. The last year or so has been turbulent, but you can go further back than that. The last four years have been very uncertain. It has been a difficult time, and maybe it has taken its toll with recent illnesses.”

Nothing that lifting the Scottish Cup at Hampden on May 13 wouldn’t cure, of course, and Pressley is desperate to win a first trophy with the club he has come, despite all its foibles, to love.

“I’ve signed four contracts since coming here (in 1998),” he says. “I’ve grown to love this club; sometimes in football you find your right environment and this is mine. I’d like to see my career out here, but Mr Romanov may have other plans.”

It took Pressley spells at Rangers, Coventry City and Dundee United to find his Shangri-la. His notion is to play another two seasons, making it 10 years at Tynecastle, before moving into coaching. It’s the type of long-term evolution that John Robertson, George Burley and Graham Rix would find enviable.

A fourth head coach in less than a year has now been installed by Romanov, and it is Pressley’s fervent wish that Valdas Ivanauskas will be given the post on a permanent, and long-term, basis.

“The club is crying out for stability in the manager’s position,” he says. “The last time we had that was with Craig Levein. The manager at a football club is such an important person.”

Ivanauskas, who felt the tip of Romanov’s boot at Kaunas before joining the Hearts coaching staff in the summer, would, says Pressley, be a popular appointment with the players.

“People on the outside may think differently, but the players really like and trust Valdas,” the captain says. “He’s got a good sense of humour and is not the stern, serious person he’s been portrayed. If we do well for him between now and the end of the season, and he’s given the job, hopefully he’ll be given it for a longer period of time. You have to allow a manager to restructure a club.”

In this respect, Pressley has only respect and admiration for Tony Mowbray, for all that he will be trying to plot Hearts’ downfall today.

“His philosophy on the game is very sound, and he’s got a good manner with his players,” Pressley says. “I’m a big fan of Tony Mowbray At any club the manager has to have the players’ trust, and it’s quite apparent to me he has that.”

The quiet stability which Mowbray brings to Hibs was denied to Hearts when Burley was sacked, and Pressley doesn’t deny the dressing room was devastated by his removal.

“George made a huge, huge impression on the players,” he says. “We were bitterly disappointed when he left. Not only did we play effective, high-tempo football under him, but there was a genuine sense within the team that we were almost invincible.

“I remember the Celtic game at Parkhead, and before it I knew we weren’t going to lose. There was such a belief in the dressing room that the worse that could happen was a draw.”

Which, at 1-1, was precisely the outcome – and as it transpired, Burley’s last game. If that was a huge shock to the captain, the departure of Rix wasn’t because results had dipped. Even so, he was surprised at the timing.

“The problem with Graham was that he was under enormous pressure – but I thought he handled himself in a dignified way,” says Pressley. “We weren’t sure how long he had, but thought he might get to the end of the season. However, Mr Romanov is the kind of guy who, if he doesn’t think it is right, isn’t going to let it fester.”

Well, that’s one way of putting it. Those who have fallen foul of the Russian-born Lithuanian have portrayed him unflatteringly, but Pressley sees it differently.

“The thing is, Mr Romanov is a very approachable and likeable guy,” he says. “He’s one of these people who is very easy to talk to. I’d like to think I have a decent relationship with him, and he feels he’s able to trust me. What people don’t see is how much he does for the club behind the scenes.”

So much, say the scoffers, that he’s prepared to pick the team. Pressley led a deputation of players who protested about Romanov’s interference in selection for the now infamous match against Dundee United at Tannadice and, in his mind at least, he’s happy that the owner listened.

“Football is a business and the man who is buying the players and paying the wages is Mr Romanov.” Pressley says. “Like many other owners he will want to have a say on who plays, but the final decision has to be with the coach.

“When we met with him he accepted what we had to say, and he’s publicly acknowledged that, but he obviously had it in his mind that if results didn’t improve he’d have to take action.”

Only a strong dressing room could withstand such blows, and Pressley, along with lieutenants Paul Hartley and Takis Fyssas, has made it his business to provide that at Tynecastle. “The foreign players will tell you that the Hearts dressing room is as good an environment as they’ve ever experienced,” he says.

“One thing we don’t allow is cliques to be formed. That’s why we have such a good spirit.”

Perversely, the biggest danger to this camaraderie has not been Romanov’s firing squads but the 11 new players he brought to the club in January.

“I feel at this moment we’ve got too many players at the club,” says Pressley. “It can be hard for certain individuals when they’re not featuring, although it might be different if we achieve Champions League football.”

The invisible men at Tynecastle include full back Ibrahim Tall and the club’s record signing, Mirsad Beslija, but Pressley is adamant that there’s nothing sinister in their distance from first-team squads.

“Ibrahim trains really hard. He’s a very good player, but the problem is we have a right back in Robbie Neilson who has grown in stature this season and made the position his own.

“We’ll see the best of Belsija next season. He’s got 40-odd caps for Bosnia and played regularly for Genk. Scottish football is a change for him and it’ll take time for him to settle into it.”

Throwing a protective arm around Rudi Skacel has also been one of Pressley’s many captaincy duties.

“If you look back over the course of the season, Rudi couldn’t be labelled as a diver,” he says. “There was an incident last weekend which people are making a big issue of, but maybe the problem is envy. Rudi has been fantastic for us.”

The next four days will be crucial for Hearts, who have to return to Glasgow on Wednesday to play Celtic. Three points for the home side would clinch the Premierleague title which Pressley believes Hearts would have won had Burley not left the club. The Edinburgh club, on the other hand, need to stay ahead of Rangers in the race to finish second.

First, though, the captain wants to secure a place in the Scottish Cup final.

“Financially, securing Champions League football is the more important of our two aims,” he says. “But I’d take them both, not one or the other. We’re maybe just at the start of something very, very exciting at the club.”

Taken from the Sunday Herald