Romanov still unsettling Hearts

THE reported row at the airport has been dismissed as a work of pure fiction, but the comments after the game remain real friction. It's a new season yet the same perceptions of interference persist and the same questions are being thrown at the Hearts manager and his players.

Anyone who considered life at the Tynecastle club this time around would be a more mundane alternative to the turbulence of last term has already had cause for a quick reassessment.

In the aftermath of the midweek draw with Siroki Brijeg, which saw the Scottish Cup winners progress to the final qualifying stage for the Champions League courtesy of a 3-0 aggregate victory, club owner Vladimir Romanov chose to berate rather than congratulate.

Expressing displeasure at the performance, which at best was perfunctory, he said his lack of satisfaction stemmed from the fact the team didn't look ready for the new season. He added he was concerned about the lack of preparation. This despite the fact that Hearts remain unbeaten in their only three competitive games thus far.

The fact that the club has rubbished the story of a raging argument between the Lithuanian owner and first-team coach Valdas Ivanauskas, does not mean that individuals at the club are not seething at the lack of diplomacy or the timing of the comments.

With big games against Celtic today and AEK Athens on Wednesday, huge head-to-heads, the pressure is now being piled on Ivanauskas - a point not lost on the players and the man himself.

"I think we will win them both and everything will be all right, said Deividas Cesnauskis, but when asked about the players' take on midweek comments, he added: "Mr Romanov is a strong man but sometimes a little bit strange. Okay, we played not very good but it was a very important game and it was 0-0 and that's not bad, it's good, and we now go to another stage." And rendering the pressure already being exerted on the coach unfair, he said: "I think everything will be okay but everybody should get the time to prove themselves." Ivanauskas seemed genuinely surprised by such open backing from the winger, a player considered one of Romanov's personal favourites and actually laughed when he was told. "It's impossible that Cesnauskis would have said something like that." But he did and it's all on tape. He ponders that for a second or two. "I am very comfortable because we have the results we have targeted and that's what counts."

He was just as cagey when it came to commenting on Romanov's post-match briefing to the media. "First of all, I doubt the translation of the content. Secondly, we've achieved the target and the target was to get into the next round. It was the target to win the second qualifying round and we did win," he said, before reminding everyone that there is always pressure on a manager's position, but insisting that in his mind the second leg against the Bosnians had done nothing to intensify that. "That is not only the target of Valdas but the target of every single player to get into the group stages of the Champions League. Everybody in the team has the target to win every game and since the beginning of the season we have not lost any games.

"Every person, be it Romanov, be it Valdas, be it the players, has targets and everybody is attempting to try to reach those targets."

It would certainly be easier without uncomplimentary comments from Romanov, who, according to people at the club, knows, after a year in the spotlight, that his comments will always make headlines.

Forget pre-season training and earlier preparation, the fact that Paul Hartley remains an absentee is as unwelcome as it is unhelpful to the team's cause and for that no blame can be assigned to the first team coach.

In fact, an accusing finger could be pointed at the owner himself because while the strain is simply one of those things, the fact there is no able understudy is surely something that could have been addressed long before now.

It has been known for a while that the team's main playmaker would be sidelined for the start of the season and was likely to miss out on the first European tie. Given the fact that he has files and files filling cabinet after cabinet on players throughout the world and he claims he is willing to spend whatever it takes, perhaps it is Romanov who should have made a move earlier, finding someone to fill that gap. Instead, this week, another two new faces arrived, a further addition to the raft of centre-halves now on staff and another full-back. Both may strengthen the squad, both may emerge as key players but neither is the creative whizz needed at the moment to co-ordinate the play and make something out of nothing through the middle of the park.

"We are waiting for Paul Hartley every day, however, I can't say exactly when he will be ready," said Ivanauskas, insisting the player has been very much missed. "The main objective is, and I repeat this again and again, that I won't risk Paul Hartley's health and I won't risk the team situation so we will wait until Paul Hartley is the old Paul Hartley before we let him out. That's better for the player himself."

While unlikely to appear this afternoon, there is an outside chance for the crucial Champions League game against the Greeks on Wednesday. "It's still too hard to say," adds Ivanauskas. But there's no doubting his return would be a huge boost to the team and the manager's morale.

"He is not only missing in the games. It's a lot more than that. He is the spirit in the team and he is the soul of the team and the integral motor, who gives the team action so he is missing in so many ways for the team."

So far they have been able to struggle on without him and unless there is a replacement brought in by the time European, international and domestic football take their toll, the chances are they will have to do so again at some stage this season.

If Romanov really wants all the Is dotted and the Ts crossed, he should address the lack of a suitable understudy for one of the main men in such a key area of the park. Because at the moment that's what really smacks of a lack of preparation.

Taken from the Scotsman