Tom glad to be part of the great leap forward

A GLANCE at the Hearts bench just as Paul Hartley, or Roman Bednar, or Edgaras Jankauskas is knocking home a decisive goal brings the conspicuous sight of an excited Tom Ritchie springing up and down with delight in the technical area.

The club's fitness coach has a very recognisable celebration when the moment takes him, at times rivalling Bugs Bunny in the bouncing stakes last season as he betrayed the satisfaction he derived during the most tumultuous campaign in Hearts' history.

The notion that a football fitness instructor can simply continue his work unperturbed during a series of managerial changes would be a brave one to put to Ritchie, below, who concedes that his role in conditioning the players has been rendered almost obsolete since last summer due to the continual upheaval at Tynecastle.

As such, the success of season 2005/06 brought him extra contentment. "We hardly did any fitness work last season because of the amount of changes," said Ritchie. "Each new manager coming in has, rightly, had to concentrate on purely football issues and getting his system of play in place.

"I'm looking forward to next season because we've had some fantastic meetings with Valdas, I know the pre-season plans and I'm looking forward to us getting a fit Hearts team again.

"It was obvious in the past that the Hearts team was always very fit. This year we have had a lot of instability and our fitness has diminished as a result. Even in the cup final, we had everything to lose and we were very anxious and nervous about it."

It all came together in the end at Hampden, however. With Gretna's resistance eventually being punctured on penalty kicks, a long-kept ambition of Ritchie's was fulfilled when he got the Tennent's Scottish Cup in his grasp as a winner.

It was back in 1998, after winding up his career as an international 800m runner, that Ritchie had his first encounter with the famous trophy as he began to seriously indulge his boyhood affection for Hearts.

"I tried finding a hobby after the athletics and my wife, Gill, bought me a season ticket for Tynecastle," he said.

"I really wanted to get involved in coaching on the other side of the fence but, at the same time, Gill had arranged for me to go and get my photo taken with the Scottish Cup, which Hearts had just won. It's not something I would have done but she had already paid for it so I went and got the picture.

"Throughout my coaching career I've always kept that picture as a reminder, to keep focused so that one day I'd get my photo taken with the Scottish Cup as a member of staff. Valdas knows this story, and he told it to Mr Romanov, so it was great to get the chance."

Ritchie represented Scotland on the track at schoolboy, junior and senior level, and after retiring was handed a footballing initiation by the former Hibs goalkeeper Jim McArthur. "He had an under-15s team in Kirkcaldy and I helped coach them for about eight weeks until Jim told me I should be doing it professionally."

McArthur recommended Ritchie's expertise on fitness to Craig Levein, then manager of Cowdenbeath, and before long he was meandering across the Forth Road Bridge at Levein's call as the former Jam Tarts centre-back arrived to succeed Jim Jefferies as manager.

"One of the things I remember Craig touching on in his first interview as Hearts manager was getting everyone at the club to pull in the one direction," recalled Ritchie. "We achieved that, and it continued under John Robertson. There's no doubt that the early part and the middle of this season was turbulent, and there are many people pointing the finger at Hearts and wanting us to fail, but as an insider I can see the look on Mr Romanov's face when we achieve something. He is genuinely enthusiastic."

Never more so than in the immediate aftermath of the Champions League-clinching victory over Aberdeen earlier this month, when Romanov leapt onto the dividing wall between the upper and lower tiers of Tynecastle's main stand in an expression of undiluted joy.

"I was delighted that the public got to see that part of him," said Ritchie. "If you go into Mr Romanov's hotel room when he's here, he's watching football on the television because he is obsessed with it. At the moment, Valdas understands how Mr Romanov wants to run the club and how the head coach has to facilitate that. As a result, things are better than ever."

So, come next season, expect to see more celebratory leaps. Both in the directors' box from Romanov, and in the technical area from Ritchie.

Taken from the Scotsman