MANURE UNITED

VLADIMIR ROMANOV last night launched another amazing attack on the media, accusing them of spreading "manure on his crops".

The Hearts chief said Scottish sportswriters were guilty of directing hate and hysteria towards the Edinburgh club.

And he compounded his admission that he interferes in team selection and added that he is involved in training methods and player recruitment. The short managerial reigns of George Burley and Graham Rix and their acrimonious departures were said to be down to the fact that Romanov was behind signings and team selection.

In yesterday's amazing statement he said: "I want to dedicate Hearts' wins to those journalists who, because of their hate of us, only notice our defeats and say it is fair criticism when in fact it is hysteria with only one aim - to dismantle the club.

"They remain blind to unfair refereeing, even the ruthless one of Athens.

"Despite your hysteria I do not only give my approval to every team selection, but also to the training process. I also participate in the selection of new players.

"Having said this, I expect more outbursts of hysteria. They give me confidence that I am on the right way.

"You remind me of those Bolsheviks in Soviet times who wanted to shoot a peasant only because he planted the seeds following his own way, and not their instructions.

"Once they were ready to shoot a peasant but a clever one stopped them and said: 'Let's shoot him after he has gathered his harvest'.

"I guess that if you could, I would have already been shot by now, but while you can't, full of hate and anger, you are spreading manure on my crops."

It is not the first time that Romanov has made outrageous claims. In his programme notes of December 2005, he insisted the Devil was behind the work of football journalists and that they were all on their way to hell.

Taken from the Daily Record