Romanov remains a hard man to please

Patrick Glenn
Sunday August 6, 2006
The Observer

Heart of Midlothian's annual returns would look extremely healthy were the club's accountants allowed to enter in the assets column the cost of hiring a PR company to provide the kind of publicity Vladimir Romanov generates. It takes a rare instinct to knock the Old Firm sideways, but the Lithuanian owner of Hearts has consistently demonstrated that he is in possession of a talent that may safely be described as genius.

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Romanov's intolerance of and willingness to jettison managers, coaches, chief executives and others he perceives as hindrances is renowned. He has also made unambiguous declarations of his disdain for Celtic and Rangers, charging both with 'standing still' while proclaiming the certainty that his team will secure the championship.

In the past week he has added more layers to a reputation for bombast and bluster that is now tall enough to effect a solar eclipse. Not since Alex Ferguson's famous condemnation of the level of performance of his Aberdeen team within minutes of defeating Rangers in the 1983 Scottish Cup final has any outburst commanded the national attention paid to Romanov's rant.

This amounted to a contemptuous dismissal of the manner in which the Tynecastle side achieved the scoreless draw at Siroki Brijeg that took them into the final qualifying round of the Champions League on a 3-0 aggregate. The banker and industrialist, immediately after the match in Bosnia, scatter-gunned criticisms that included the players' preparation, the tactics of the coach Valdas Ivanauskas and the team's ineptitude in what was a tediously uneventful game.

Seemingly impervious to the argument that Ivanauskas's squad had achieved their objective of winning the tie, Romanov also appears to be aloof to the possibility that his negativity could have a damaging impact on the self-assurance of the coach and his players.

This seems especially relevant in a week which features this afternoon's collision of Hearts and Celtic in Edinburgh. It should be emphasised, however, that the owner's previous eccentricities appear to have had little or no adverse effect on the team, although he is insistent that rather than split the Old Firm as runners-up to Celtic last season, Hearts should have captured the title.

It is entirely possible that he realises that in Ivanauskas he has a marvellously stoical lieutenant, a man seemingly immune to his fellow Lithuanian's absurdities. 'I haven't spoken to Mr Romanov since before the match as he went straight to the airport afterwards,' he said. 'But I doubt the translation of the contents of the interviews and, second, we achieved our target, which was to reach the next round. That's the target of everyone here and has been from the start. That means myself, the players, Mr Romanov, everyone connected with the club. That has always been the objective we have been interested in.'

The coach could probably have asked for a less testing preface to meeting AEK of Athens on Wednesday than a confrontation with Celtic. He and his rival manager, Gordon Strachan, however, have difficulties that could diminish their prospects of victory.

Ivanauskas will be without three influential players - the midfielder Paul Hartley, striker Edgaras Jankauskas and defender Jose Goncalves - because of injury, while Strachan is similarly afflicted by the loss of Shaun Maloney, Bobo Balde and Paul Telfer.

In addition, both have been subjected to demanding journeys. If Hearts' long coach trip to Split airport and flight home basically meant a sleepless night on Wednesday, it hardly compares with Celtic's journey to Japan to play Yokohama Marinos as part of the deal that took Shunsuke Nakamura to Glasgow.

Strachan left most of his first-team at home, but there were enough on the trip to cause concern among their supporters. It is unlikely, though, that any individual is as important to Celtic as Hartley is to Hearts. 'We miss him very much,' said the coach. 'He is the spirit and soul of the team, the integral motor. He gives the team more action. We would like to have him back from his groin injury in time to play AEK. I don't rule him out, I just don't know.'

Strachan and his fellow travellers did not arrive back until Friday evening and, as always, the effects will be impossible to detect until the players are properly tested. Even this early in the season, it is a serious examination of both sides. Romanov is likely to be thinking it should be a walk in the park.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer