The Czech Republic midfield player stormed out of the ground on Saturday after he was left out of the squad for the match against Dunfermline Athletic by Valdas Ivanauskas, the caretaker coach. Yesterday, Skacel hinted to a source in his homeland that he could look for another club.

Skacel, 26, is Hearts’ top scorer with 16 goals this season and is on loan from Marseilles. His stay in the French port was brief, and a loan to Panathinaikos in Greece lasted only seven months before he arrived in Edinburgh last July as one of George Burley’s signings.

Skacel enjoys great popularity with the Hearts fans but with 35 players to choose from, after extensive signing sprees by Vladimir Romanov, the owner, there is a pressure on Ivanauskas to juggle his squad. Andy Webster, the Scotland defender, was also left out at the weekend and Julien Brellier, the French midfield player, has also suffered recently.

“Nobody explained anything to me, I feel strange about this,” Skacel was quoted as saying by the Czech daily sport newspaper. “I did not play last Wednesday [against Celtic], they said that I was tired and needed a rest before the important matches. I am disappointed because I am perfectly fit and ready to play immediately.”

Skacel admitted that he does not know where he will be playing next season. “I will probably not return to Marseilles, I am not even in contact with the club,” he said. “I think that none of them can count on my return.” His agent, Viktor Kolar, told the paper: “Rudi wants to sort this out at the end of the season. There are several clubs interested. He has made a good name in Scotland.”

Ivanauskas told Hearts’ website on Sunday that there was no problem with Skacel. “We have a lot of players and Rudi needs to rest,” he said. “We need Rudi to be fresh and Rudi was not in the squad, but it is no problem.”

However, Paul Hartley, the club’s best player this season, believes that Ivanauskas must take some of the credit for the Tynecastle side’s return to form that has seen them score eight goals in their past three matches — including the 4-0 win over Hibernian in the Scottish Cup semi-final.

“Since Valdas has come in, he has not changed that much,” Hartley said. “He gets his point across very well, and it’s not as if he’s just new to the club because he’s been here for quite a number of months now. We understand him and he is a very good coach.

“He is able to get his message across. It’s quite brief but we know what he’s saying. Everyone knows what they have to do and he is very organised. Everything is put across well.”

Hartley expressed his pleasure that Juho Makel, the young Finnish striker, had benefited from Ivanauskas’s rotation policy. The 23-year-old scored in the 4-0 win over Dunfermline after coming off the bench for his first taste of Premierleague action, three months after his signing from HJK Helsinki.

“I’m pleased for Juho because he hasn’t been involved that much,” Hartley said. “He’s been stuck in the reserves, and he got a goal for them on Tuesday night when I went to watch them. That gave him a little bit of confidence but scoring at the weekend will have been a great lift for him. The players who are coming in are doing very well, and it’s great to see everybody chipping in. Valdas has a really difficult job because we have that many players in the squad, but those who are playing are giving their best.”

Rotation, of course, is a policy that can also be applied to managers at Tynecastle. The plethora of names who have been linked with the vacancy created by the sacking of Graham Rix three weeks ago — and George Burley last October — had another added to it yesterday in the shape of Pierre Littbarski.

The former Germany player, who played in three World Cup finals and lifted the trophy in 1990, has emerged as a contender. Littbarski, 45, is at present manager of Sydney FC, whom he guided to Australia’s inaugural A-League title this year. A poor financial performance has forced the club to make cutbacks and Littbarski has been offered a 30 per cent pay cut to stay for a second year.

Hearts refused to comment on reports in Australia that state that the German is in contention for the vacancy at Tynecastle, where Ivanauskas is overseeing coaching on a temporary basis. “The club does not comment on any names of potential managers,” David Southern, a club spokesman, said. “We will only comment when we do eventually appoint someone.”

However, Littbarski fits the mould of Romanov in that he is relatively young, speaks good English and carries a high profile. He also appears to be available, having asked for almost a month to consider Sydney’s new contract offer, reportedly worth an annual £200,000 as opposed to his initial salary of £300,000. Littbarski has asked Sydney for a deadline of May 2 to decide.

His previous coaching career saw him in the role of assistant manager at Bayer Leverkusen and Duisburg. Littbarski has also had two stints in Japan in charge of Yokohama.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk