JOHN McGLYNN sits with his back to the wall in the corner of the Hearts' coaches office.

Smart move, some would say, given the number of daggers left dangling between shoulder blades in the room this past year.

But his reason is far less sinister. He just wanted the wall space.

And judging by the posters above his head he's about to need an annex.

"This year's reserve team," McGlynn chuckles, pointing at a meticulously-maintained grid of who played in what position, goals, yellow cards, the lot. "Have a guess how many players we've used."

A quick glance tells you that even if both of us took off our shoes and socks we'd need reinforcements.

"FORTY-EIGHT" he says, rolling his eyes, "in 19 games. Welcome to Hearts."

It shouldn't be a surprise in a season that's seen four managers and 24 new players through the door.

Throughout the mayhem of the Romanov revolution though, there's been one constant - McGlynn.

Always there for the players and the coach du jour. Always there for the club. Always there as long as he's wanted.

As he helped new boss Vladas Ivanauskas prepare for this afternoon's Cup clash with Hibs, the 44-year-old shrugged: "I've seen it all from this seat but I've never felt bad enough to chuck it.

"It's been at the back of my mind. I've been low, seeing people lose their jobs, but it's never come to the fore.

"You feel for the guy leaving. It's unsettling because you build a relationship with them.

"The lack of stability gets to you. You never know if a new manager or coach will want to bring in his own staff.

"It does you in - the uncertainty, the time it takes to make up their mind, to decide if you're for them."

But McGlynn's call-a-spade-a-spade honesty has been for everyone so far.

Which is why, despite the upheaval, he'll be at Ivanauskas' side at Hampden today, the same as he was for George Burley and Graham Rix before him. But it's the trust the players have in him that has been hardest earned in an 11-year stay at Tynecastle.

McGlynn signed up with old pals Billy Brown and Jim Jeff eries as part-time coach of the under-16s in 1995.

Since then the self-employed plumber and former Dundee United and Bolt on kid whose three seasons at Berwick were the peak of his senior career has worked through the ranks to take charge of the top team in three separate spells.

And he confessed: "The players know I'm always there for them. They trust me and that's a massive thing in football.

"No matter what they say in public the changes are unsettling.

"The players build relationships with guys like George and Graham and when it's taken away it can be difficult."

The big question is though, does the trust carry on up the ladder from the coaches room to the boardroom?

McGlynn said: "We have to play the cards we're dealt. Longer term? I can see Vladimir Romanov bringing in even better players.

"Look at the fact he's kept Craig Gordon as a sign. He could have sold him for £3million and topped up the fund some people think he's going to earn by flogging Tynecastle and building flats!

"I think he's here for the long term. It may be that coaches come and go but he wants to make Hearts a force not only in Scotland but in Europe.

"We hear all the stories. We were at a youth player event last week and a speaker did a song about Romanov - very catchy it was and it ended up claiming he was a Hibby in disguise!

"We've only spoken once, when I was in charge of the team. It's hard to describe what it was about, it was just... strange.

"We discussed a number of things - but nothing was really for debate!" The next few weeks will play a huge part in deciding how Romanov's first season pans out.

And McGlynn reckons if the Jambos weren't still chasing Cup glory AND a Champions League spot things could have gone pear-shaped with the timing of Rix's sacking.

He said: "There's not long to go in the season so we don't have time to mump and moan or feel sorry for ourselves.

"It's the ONLY thing keeping us going, being this close to success. Otherwise you might have seen the whole thing unravelling.

"Our discipline could have gone in games like last Saturday at Falkirk. But the players kept their shape, we got one bit of quality in the second half and it was enough."

McGlynn knows it will take more than that to roll over a Hibs side who gave him his most painful dugout moment though.

Given temporary charge after Burley's shock sacking in October, he held together their unbeaten league streak with wins over Dunfermline and Kil-marnock before heading for Easter Road.

But a moment of red-card madness from Edgaras Jankauskas at 0-0 saw Hearts crumble to a two-goal defeat. McGlynn winced: "That hurt. Really hurt.

"I never wanted our first league defeat on my watch. Hibs were on a great run but if we'd kept 11 players on the park we could have got a draw. Not perfect, but we'd have taken it, all things considered.

"This game will be just as difficult. We've done our homework, identified what we think we have to do - now we have to go out and do it."

Taken from the Sunday Mail