Clock is ticking for Ivanauskas

THERE was the air of something terminal. The belief that the end is nigh. But no-one really wanted to admit it. Like visits to a dying relative, there were matters which needed to be addressed but doing so seemed callous.

Physically imposing with a stoney stare, Valdas Ivanauskas has the look of a man who can take care of himself so it's slightly strange that the over-riding emotion during the media sitdown at Tynecastle on Friday was pity.

Uncomfortable ponderings, punctuated by terrible awkwardness, the Lithuanian was almost statesman-like in the way he handled questions both veiled and direct about his future as Hearts coach, but he knows as well as any that while his P45 may not be waiting on his desk tomorrow, regardless the result against Motherwell today, it now seems inevitable that it will materialise long before the season reaches a climax.

He laughs as one journalist asks if he will leave Hearts a better person for the experience, the amusement arising from the "when'", "if'", not saying it will necessarily be any day soon caveat. "I think you are sending me away already", he teases. It is gallows humour and prompts only polite smiles as denials could be seen to offer false hope. While no-one in the room was ready to dispatch him, the firm belief is that his employer is probably itching to do just that.

Since a deserved victory over Celtic at the beginning of August offered some credence to the close-season suggestion that Hearts were ready to up the ante further and once again undermine the Old Firm's domination of the domestic scene, the team have played seven, won one, drawn one and lost five. While still third in the Premierleague before this weekend's round of matches, they are all but ousted from Europe, having fallen at the final qualifying hurdle for the Champions League and now trailing Sparta Prague 2-0 in their quest to make it to the UEFA Cup group stages. It's a long way short of the lofty targets set by club owner Vladimir Romanov.

If Ivanauskas' downfall was of his own making then the helpings of pity may have been more paltry on Friday but he is man attempting to work miracles with one hand tied behind his back. He can't come out and say it or he really will be out on his ear, so he has to take the flak when the going is bad and melt back into the shadows as Romanov takes centre stage when things go right. He has already confessed to meddling in team selection, and his mere presence around the club is enough to have everyone on tenterhooks. He is the man who mouths off in the media, wages war on whoever he pleases, then disappears back home to Lithuania, leaving everyone else to fight his battles. He is the one who suggests he has the desire and the means to bring in World Cup stars but then fails to deliver.

Ivanauskas was no stranger to the Hearts situation when he took on the job, and has experienced working for his demanding boss previously, at Kaunas, but this time, he insists, the stress and the strain is greater.

"The pressures are very, very distinct from each other. Here there is a lot more interest, a lot more attention and a lot more of everything with regards the media and fans and everything around the club than in Lithuania. I fully respect and enjoy Lithuanian football but the two are very different from each other."

The pressure is beginning to tell. The dressing-room bonds are fraying and so are nerves.

"Yes, especially in the last games that have been played," admits Ivanauskas. "There is not a calmness inside me now but the main objective is to find a way out of this and get on a positive track. Because of the sequence of the games, with only a couple of days in between, it is impossible to find a moment to relax because the next game and then the next game come very quick."

If he can't push his players any harder due to time constraints, he is taking his own body to the limits as he works out to forget. But even a man as fit as Ivanauskas has to stop some time and that is when the tension resurfaces. He can't switch off.

"The pressure is very, very strong especially psychologically, not only concerning myself but in the team because every single game is of huge, vital importance and that places even more pressure on the team."

Which is why captain Steven Pressley has called for a show of character from his team-mates, too many of whom have been below par or hiding in recent games. But, with victory against bottom of the table Motherwell crucial to rebuild some confidence, Ivanauskas insists it is about the collective rather than the individual will to win.

"The team, as you know, is international. Every player has his own mentality and each mentality is very different. Lithuanians have their own character, Chileans have, Portuguese have, Scottish people have their own mentality and their own character. The combination is what the actual character of the team is at the end of the day. Against Sparta Prague that character wasn't there. But especially the big, responsible games allow us to see in what way players are good and in what ways they are bad. I can say now, having seen all these games, I know what are the weaknesses and what are the strengths of different players."

The follow-up question is obvious. If that's the case, is it not difficult to get that balance right when people who don't have the same day to day insight are helping to pick the team? His face turns red, whether angry and embarrassed or a combination of both.

He is fidgeting and eye contact is minimal. It is perhaps a cruel question but one that needs asking. The lengthy pause suggests the head coach recognises he is in a lose-lose situation. He can either agree and risk being ditched sooner rather than later for criticising his employer or pretend he has autocratic powers when it comes to team matters and be damned by everyone else. In the end, he cuts a forlorn figure as he opts for diplomacy and refuses to attribute blame.

"For every player who goes onto the field to play it is invaluable experience every time. Last season the balance was probably better than it is now but we will get there, it just takes time.

"The negative always supplies invaluable experience for a manager, as well as the team and it is only a way of learning, a method of getting vital experience for the future."

But now it is about rehabilitation for the team and survival for Ivanauskas. He says he felt under pressure at the Scottish Cup final as he was keen to keep the job he had been gifted on an interim basis. That day he lived to fight another day, and eventually signed a contract that allowed him to fight another season. But still there is the sense of a dead man walking.

Sitting listening to Ivanauskas there was a feeling of deja vu. We had all heard managers talk a good game before in the hope of saving their jobs. Last year it was Graham Rix, but perhaps even more pertinently it was Alex McLeish.

When Romanov set out his stall, saying Hearts would be emulating the Old Firm, no-one guessed that he would be using the Rangers team of 2005/06 as the template.

Last season McLeish was the man under constant scrutiny and, like Ivanauskas now, the timing of his fate rather than the fate itself was the matter occupying minds as his team continued to struggle to meet standards.

But the problem with aiming high is that, unless that aim is harnessed to reality, when the grip goes it's a long way down and the landing is rarely cushioned.

Taken from the Scotsman