Stewart Fisher examines the mysterious figures in the Tynecastle coaching set-up

HAVE you seen the Tynecastle two? Whilst Vladimir Romanov bestrides the airwaves and peers out from every newspaper in the land, Eduard Malofeev and Anatoly Korobochka – the pair of coaching comrades from the former Soviet bloc who were appointed as consultant and sporting director at Hearts in August – seem content to be covert operatives, their public profiles apparently inversely proportional to that of the club’s controversial owner.

Not only are the pair forbidden to speak on footballing matters, concrete facts about their job descriptions are difficult to pin down, and attempting to follow their whereabouts is more difficult than tracking a Paul Hartley run. At the end of a week in which the club exited the Uefa Cup after a goalless second leg draw in Prague – watched by Korobochka, but not Malofeev – there is at least some good news: the Sunday Herald has learned that the latter has finally been granted his Home Office permit to work in the country.

In Malofeev’s case, keeping such a low profile is no mean feat. The 64-year-old – who earned 40 caps for the Soviet Union as a player – is a legendary coach in his own right, with achievements in the game which dwarf those of Valdas Ivanauskas. He made his name when he took Dinamo Minsk to the Soviet championship title in 1982, joining Dnipro, Dinamo Tblisi and Ararat Yerevan as the only teams capable of breaking the success of the Moscow and Kiev teams, and the only Belorussian side ever to do so. Next he spent two years as coach of the Soviet Union itself, before being replaced by the even more legendary Valeriy Lobanovskiy, his main coaching rival during the period.

“Malofeev and Lobanovskiy were great ideological rivals during the 80s,” says Jonathan Wilson, football historian and author with a specialist interest in Eastern European football. “While Lobanovskiy had everything analysed by computers in his laboratory, Malofeev wanted players to express themselves. The term they always used was ‘sincere football’, which was more organic and based on individual skill. He picked that up from the coach that predated him, Oleg Basilievich. I am sure the plan was that he would have been the Godfather at Hearts, although quite how the hierarchy would have worked I’m not sure.”

The comparison with Lobanovskiy doesn’t end there. Lobanovskiy died of a stroke brought on by chronic alcoholism, a failing which also curtailed the career of former Spartak Moscow coach Oleg Romantsev, and Malofeev is also known to have had a liking for the booze, even if it was several years ago and on nothing like the same scale as those two. There are even suggestions that it was this which cost him the chance to take his Soviet Union team to the 1986 World Cup. “He was an alcoholic before he became Belarus national team manager,” said Vidas Rastevis, editor of the Lithuanian football weekly. “These days he is a very religious man.”

Having spent three years from 2000 in charge of the Belarus national team, last December saw Malofeev leave his job overseeing youth development at MTZ-Ripo Minsk, a Belorussian club controlled by Romanov, to get back to day-to-day management at the Hearts owner’s Lithuanian-based concern, FBK Kaunas. The effects were extraordinary.

Under his guidance, the club were transformed from the lacklustre outfit which struggled badly last season, winning 18 of their first 19 games in the league and establishing a lead at the top of the Lithuanian top division which remains virtually unassailable with some eight games of the current season left to play.

But it is Hearts who are Romanov’s real plaything these days. Malofeev was introduced to the players during the first stage of their pre-season this summer – on Romanov’s yacht as it moored in the Mediterranean at Monaco – leaving fans of Kaunas distraught. “Everybody says that it was the worst decision of Mr Romanov to take Mr Malofeev from Kaunas, because everybody thought that if he had stayed at Kaunas he could have taken them to the Uefa Cup group stages,” said Rastevis.

Hearts officially will say no more than that both men “are advisors on footballing matters to Mr Romanov and work in a similar manner to other advisors he uses such as legal, financial and PR”, but finding the best outlet for Malofeev’s talents is vitally important.

Journalists who know him best say that it has always been his dream to coach at a Western European club, but at the moment his job description is limited to strategic thinking on training regimes and transfers, including the arrival of Marius Zaliukas, Andrius Velicka and Kestutis Ivaskevicius from FBK Kaunas. Major drawbacks to him taking a more hands on coaching role, at least now that the work permit impasse has finally been lifted, include a very poor – almost non-existent, in fact – grasp of the English language, and uncertainty over whether he has the requisite coaching badges.

Not to mention the fact that he is very much his own man – another factor which suggests the personable yet pliable Ivanauskas is safe for the meantime. “At Hearts it is impossible to be a dictator, but at both Minsk and Kaunas Malofeev had full freedom and control at the club,” said another Lithuanian journalist. “He is a man with strong will, but at this point in his career, Valdas’ main thing is to make his name and gain experience.”

Details about Korobochka are even more sketchy, although the 51-year-old, a former general manager at CSKA Moscow speaks significantly better English and is thought to have spent time studying the coaching methods of Arsene Wenger while studying for his Russian coaching badges. His remit with Hearts is thought to be more centred on liaising with the academy directors and bringing through young players.

Malofeev, meanwhile, is thought to be back in Belarus at the moment, identifying future targets for Hearts. The rest, for now at least, remains shrouded in mystery.

Taken from the Sunday Herald