Romanov's Plan

In an interview (through an interpreter) with the Scotsman, Romanov also spoke of his frustration at the amount of effort required to get Hearts moving in the direction he wanted.

Romanov:

'At first when I came to Hearts I thought all I'd need to do is put money in,' Romanov told The Scotsman through an interpreter. 'I thought: great, everything else is in place, the management team, great - but when I started to understand the way things were working and understand their level of knowledge I realised it would take me 100 years to sink to that level. Their knowledge needs to be raised up to correspond to my vision. It's sad, but that's how it is.'

When asked about the realistic potential for Hearts, he continued:

'I'm personally convinced that a city like Edinburgh has the potential to build a club where the number of fans wanting to go to games is no less than those who go to games in Barcelona,' he continued. 'But that doesn't depend on me. That's something that the city has to decide.

'These are the matches I dream of. Battles with top English and Italian teams. One of the key ingredients is a modern stadium. The possibilities for the stadium are far from exhausted. We're building a new stand that will raise the capacity to 25,000. It's possible that a few years down the line we'll also look at revamping the other stand, which could then take the capacity up to 30,000.

'We can say at the moment that the club's debt has effectively been written off. That said, we want to see the club continuing to achieve, to move higher, and achieve ambitions which should not be impeded in any way by economic factors. In order to see the club becoming more viable, we need to have specialists working in parallel - not just coaching staff, we're talking about marketing, ticket sales, fan relations.'

Encouraging words, although many will still have their doubts about the man's motives for choosing Hearts. Not just green-eyed supporters of other Scottish clubs either - many Hearts fans, despite chanting his name excitedly at Tynecastle on Wednesday, are still very sceptical about the way the club is being run. However for the time being the collective attitude appears to be 'let's just enjoy it while it lasts and worry about it if and when the time comes'. I'd concur with that just now - the alternative would probably be playing all our home games at Murrayfield in front of 8,000 people without a big game in sight, so I'll settle for what we have at the moment.

Romanov also spoke of his frustration about certain aspects of the Scottish game, things that have annoyed many in this country for years. One of those is the perception that there is an institutionalised bias towards the Old Firm in Scotland, a belief shared by the vast majority of knowledgable Scottish football fans, particularly when it comes to refereeing.

'These are issues which are not going to be resolved overnight,' added Romanov. 'It's not something you can resolve in the dark, and we don't want to create a big tragedy out of it. But they do need to be resolved nonetheless. There are some serious issues with the quality of the refereeing which need to be addressed. Corrective measures need to be taken. But there are exceptions also.

'Tuesday night's Hibs-Rangers match, for example - the levels of professionalism shown by the referee were excellent. He didn't allow discipline or control of the game to be lost, so that gives us hope.
'I've discovered a lot for myself this season. I've come to the conclusion that there are issues with the game in Scotland that need to be addressed. I wouldn't want to say I've understood everything - that takes more than one year.'

One of the main complaints about Romanov's style of management this season has been the consistent accusation of his interference in first team matters, with Graham Rix in particular appearing to pay the price for this. Romanov does not deny having an influence on the team, but he is quick to insist that he is not alone in having input on such matters:

'I could easily pick a team, but for that I'd need medical qualifications, I'd need to spend a year on the training ground getting to know the players, I would need a lot of knowledge which I don't have. I have an understanding of football, but I don't have the knowledge you require.

'If I had all that, sure, I'd have a go at picking the team, but that's not the case. Indirectly, everyone influences the team. More than anyone else, journalists influence the team.'

I'm not entirely sure I agree with that last statement, but overall the interview seems positive. Maybe he is, like Old Firm fans keep joyously reminding us, 'pulling the wool over our eyes' and Tynecastle will be turned into luxury flats within five years. But maybe not. His reaction at the final whistle at Tynecastle on Wednesday did not appear to be of a man who couldn't care less what happens to this club. Nor the reaction of a man who is in this purely for his own financial gain and nothing else. This is a man who clearly loves his football and for the time being at least, is enjoying the challenges that being the owner of Heart Of Midlothian Football Club gives him.

Either that or he's a deceit-ridden, evil gangster searching for world domination, an Ernst Stavro Blofeld of the 21st Century! Only time will tell...............