We're best of friends by miles, son

HEARTS have gathered more enemies than General Custer over the last 12 months as Vladimir Romanov has intermittently drawn his pistol and fired several rounds deep into the guts of Scottish football.

The SFA, the Old Firm and referees represent merely a small portion of those who have come into the Russian banker's firing line as he sets about shifting some of Scottish football's power from the west to the east. But Romanov and Hearts have stumbled upon perhaps an unlikely ally recently in the form of Brooks Mileson's Gretna.

Whilst the rest of Scottish football appear unwilling to welcome the resistance movement which is gathering pace in Gorgie, there is a small community in Dumfriesshire who genuinely appear to be rooting for Romanov and his revolution.

It started with Mileson's goodwill during preparations for the Scottish Cup final as he happily handed unsold Gretna tickets over to Tynecastle. Then came that emotional tribute from the Hearts supporters as the Second Division champions were only denied a major trophy at Hampden following their penalty shoot-out defeat.

Concurrent with the euphoria of Hearts' cup victory dissipating, Mileson has fostered a strong friendship with Romanov and has been invited to attend the St Darius and St Girenas Stadium in Kaunas this September to witness Scotland playing Lithuania as a personal guest of Hearts' majority shareholder. And just to compound the love-in between the two clubs, Gretna's first signing of the summer was former Hearts midfielder Neil MacFarlane, whose first outing for his new team could be against his old one if Valdas Ivanauskas and Rowan Alexander can agree a date for a pre-season friendly.

Mileson, a guy who sports long hair, jeans and cowboy boots, is evidently quite happy to consort with the enemy. "We want the relations between the two clubs to carry on," he says enthusiastically. "There's a real friendship there, and isn't that what football is supposed to be about?

"There is a camaraderie between the clubs now and I couldn't be happier about that. It was there leading up to the final and certainly during the final, and I think it has been strengthened since the final."

So what will be the next stage for this droopy-eyed infatuation? A reasonable conclusion might be the loaning of players, which we all know is a keen pastime of Romanov's.

But rather than younger Hearts protégés such as Jamie Mole, Lee Wallace or even Christophe Berra preparing themselves for a trip down the M74, Mileson has his sights fixed on some considerably more luminary procurements.

"We're on our maximum for the number of players we can sign, but if they want to loan us Paul Hartley I'm sure we could make some room for him," he joked. "I wouldn't want to dismiss loaning players as a possibility. We have a great relationship with Hearts and ultimately that's something for the two managers to discuss in the future.

"Playing a pre-season friendly would be a good start and we could take it from there. The club have been in discussions about that so we'll see how it goes. It would be great just to continue the good nature that now exists between us and it doesn't matter how we do that, whether it's loaning players or arranging friendlies or whatever."

Any pre-season meeting will need to be arranged for somewhere other than Raydale Park as Gretna's tiny ground is undergoing redevelopment work over the summer months to ensure it is compliant with the SPL minimum criteria of 6000 seats.

"We have to redevelop the stadium to make it SPL compliant, and that involves moving the pitch as well as a lot of other things so there won't be any friendlies played at Raydale this season," admitted Mileson with a sigh. "We have to extend the pitch by 20 metres so that we are in line with the SPL's criteria. The work is starting now."

Given that Alexander is preparing his players for their first experience of life in the First Division, the stadium investment is as heavy an indication as you will find of Mileson's intentions to take Gretna to the upper echelons of the Scottish game.

Who knows, in a couple of years they too could be challenging the Old Firm, ruffling feathers within the SFA and willfully questioning officialdom.

Taken from the Scotsman