Romanov keen to see Hearts climb to the next level

Make no mistake. That is what Vladimir Romanov is in their eyes. Probably in his own too. Hearts’ gregarious owner is not shy. Not for him the polite acceptance of success of his compatriot, Roman Abamovich, looking on at his Chelsea players with modest applause. No, Romanov greeted the moment his club earned an invite into the Champions League by clambering on to the ledge of the Tynecastle directors’ box and pumping the air with his fists in triumph. It was a symbolic moment — now Hearts believe they are ready to climb into the next level.

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Second prize has probably never been celebrated so lustily. However, second place when it is in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague, and when your name is not Celtic or Rangers, is something few have known. The fact that it carries a potential £10 million prize if Hearts can reach the lucrative group stages of Europe’s premier club competition made those celebrations even more understandable after defeating Aberdeen 1-0 in the penultimate game to see off the challenge from Rangers.

Romanov has pledged to rebuild Hearts next season, on the pitch and off it. A new stand and hotel are planned for Tynecastle while several new signings could be on their way to help Valdas Ivanauskas, or whoever is in charge of the side. Next May, Romanov believes he will be celebrating first place.

The Russian-born, Lithuanian-raised millionaire wants the Premierleague title. Whatever his flaws, and there are many, you cannot argue with the way he has funded the makeover of Hearts since his arrival in Edinburgh 18 months ago turned around a club that was heading for administration with a £20 million debt round its neck. His Hearts have broken the Glasgow duopoly where others have failed.

“We want first place,” Romanov declared yesterday. “We cannot run before we can walk and I expected our progress to be gradual, but we have come very far already. To win the title, it will be the same kind of task as it was for us to get into the Champions League place. I know it will be tough to become the champions of Scotland. But everything for us is connected to the stadium here, and the new stand that we want to build.”

Hearts have yet to submit a planning application to replace Tynecastle’s historic — built in 1914 — but outdated main stand but Romanov wants the club to remain at its spiritual home, and intends to build offices and eventually an hotel on the site. “Heart of Midlothian is a massive part of my life,”Romanov added. “Next season, we will prepare for the reconstruction of the club. We want to build it from the ground and that begins with the stand.”

Romanov’s obsession with recruiting players — he brought 23 into Tynecastle last season — is unlikely to halt either. His son, Roman Romanov, the club chairman, spoke after the Aberdeen match of adding three quality players to the squad in a bid to progress past the Champions League qualifying round.

There will almost certainly be a vacancy at Rudi Skacel’s dressing-room peg. The Czech Republic midfield player appears to have played his last game after Vladimir Romanov admitted Skacel wanted to move to England, just 24 hours after Hearts announced they had bought the player from Marseilles — who loaned him out for the season — for a fee believed to be £500,000.

“His agent has asked us to terminate his contract to allow him to go to another club for £1 million,” Romanov explained. “The team has got to the stage now where it is well-formed and I think if we were to bring in more new players just for the sake of it then it could cause disruption.

“Nobody will be asked to stay if they don’t want to. If that happens, then players would have to be replaced, but at the moment we are near to the correct balance of the team. Many of our players have been made good offers to leave Hearts, and they are scratching their heads at the moment.“

Yet Skacel’s sudden U-turn — and the imminent departure of Andy Webster, the Scotland defender — symbolises Hearts’ season: nothing has ever been simple and just when it appears something tangible is about to be embraced, the football is hijacked by something off the pitch.

The most notable event of all was the departure of George Burley last October after a ten-game unbeaten run that took Hearts to the top of the table. Burley was inexplicably sacked.

Then, Burley’s successor, Graham Rix, was fired in April: two managers, one chairman (George Foulkes) and a chief executive (Phil Anderton) all fell foul of the only man whose opinion counts at Tynecastle.

Their work was derided by Roman Romanov recently but, thankfully, Ivanauskas took the time in his moment of triumph to remember his predecessors.

“It was not only my work,” the caretaker coach said. “It was down to what George Burley did with the team and what Graham Rix did with the team. Also, the rest of the coaching staff, from the kit man to the bus driver.”

Certainly, John McGlynn, who stood in as caretaker after the departures of Craig Levein, John Robertson, Burley and Rix, and completed the season as Ivanauskas’s right-hand man, deserves immense credit. He was the glue that held Hearts together, off the pitch.

On the pitch, it was Paul Hartley. Craig Gordon was recognised as the Scottish Football Writers’ Player of the Year but while the Scotland goalkeeper saved precious points for his side, he could not influence the winning of games. That was largely down to the energy, desire and skill of Hartley. It was fitting that Hartley’s composed penalty against Aberdeen took Hearts into the Champions League. The midfield player is now worth £2 million but Hearts would be mad to sell.

Others, such as the unsung Robbie Neilson, who has been a model of consistency at right back all season, deserve praise. It is not so long ago that Neilson was being hounded by some supporters, yet he delivered for his three managers this term in a way few of the cosmopolitan cast of recruits did and contributed to the pace of a side whose football was exhilarating at times to watch.

“This has been nine months of hard work for all the players at this club,” Ivanauskas said. “The city of Edinburgh wants Champions League football and we can deliver that for them next season. We are looking to the next game against Rangers. I think I will enjoy this game, then it is the Scottish Cup final, which will be a great day for our supporters. If they want the cup, we will win the cup.”

Hartley underlined yesterday that the Scottish Cup is a must for the club. If Ivanauskas’s side defeat Gretna on May 13 it will not remain in the memory the way Jim Jefferies’ side did in beating Rangers in 1998, but winning silverware, regardless of the opposition, is a habit worth forming.

While some fans elsewhere may consider that Hearts have generated too much fuss for finishing second behind Celtic, that misses the point. It is the first time that the Old Firm have been split since 1994, when Motherwell finished second, while Aberdeen were runners-up in 1991 and 1993. That, though, was the era of a very dominant Rangers side — funded by Champions League wealth — and a very weak Celtic, who finished fourth.

Now Hearts have created a three-cornered contest for next season in which the relative health, if not wealth, of the clubs could create a new era of excitement in the title race.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk