Gone but not forgotten

JULIEN BRELLIER is currently continuing his career in Switzerland, but there is no chance of him opting for neutrality where the fate of his former club and manager are concerned. The former Hearts midfielder moved to FC Sion last week, putting an end to an unhappy period at Championship strugglers Norwich City, but his mind is never too far away from events unfolding over in Scotland.

At the end of a week in which his former mentor Burley was given the Scotland manager's job, and with Hearts set to take on Rangers in a CIS Cup semi-final in midweek, now seemed as apt a time as any to catch up with him.

The switch to Switzerland should move Brellier closer to his family home in the Alps as well as improving his standard of life, after his time in East Anglia started badly with injury, then quickly worsened when he found that his face didn't fit under new manager Glenn Roeder. And it should certainly be less stressful than his final days at Hearts, when he incurred the occasional wrath of owner Vladimir Romanov by criticising the treatment of certain players at the club.
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Things have got worse in Gorgie since then but Wednesday night's meeting with Rangers represents a rare chance for Hearts to forget all about their league struggles this season.

Brellier, who came on as a substitute after 72 minutes of the team's Scottish Cup win two seasons ago, knows all about the difficulties of maintaining a belief in the dressing room when you disagree with certain aspects of the running of the club; and believes that such mental discipline will also be critical on Wednesday night.

"Hearts are a great club and they should not be near the bottom of the league," Brellier said. "They should be up there fighting at the top. I keep following Hearts, checking them on the internet, finding out what they are doing and I know they are not doing so well. I think they are still good players but when things are not going too well it is difficult to turn things around. Having said that I think Stevie Frail will be a good manager, and I think he is doing well.

"I have often talked about the way the club has been run," the Frenchman added, "and I think I have maybe talked too much about that. Mr Romanov put some good money into the club, and brought some good players there as well. I just think the atmosphere at the moment is not very good and things are not very easy for the players. But they must stay concentrated and keep thinking that they are good players."

As for Burley, the man who brought him to the club, then led his side to nine wins in his first 12 games in charge before his inexplicable exit, Brellier for one is convinced that the SFA have got the best man for the job. Some observers may suggest that Burley's quietly spoken manner isn't conducive to inspiring tub-thumping oratory, but Brellier speaks glowingly of his motivational tactics, even if international football precludes him from using the transfer market.

"He is actually a very good coach, but when you are with the national team you don't have a lot of time to do a lot of things on the training field," said Brellier, who last spoke to his former manager following Norwich's 2-1 win over Southampton earlier in the campaign. "He is very good at managing the players so they all feel very confident with him. And very strong together, that is very important.

"It was impressive that he managed to mould a team together from so many different nationalities when he was at Hearts but then he also got to pick the players, they were all very good players and I am not sure how many of them are still in his team at Hearts," the Frenchman added.

In fact, Burley's time at Hearts prior to that shock exit that Saturday morning in October 2005 was so serene that the only gap in Brellier's knowledge of the man is how Burley would react if things started going against him. "We were always in a good mood because when a team is winning, there is always a good atmosphere," Brellier said. "I never really saw him angry but there was never really anything for him to be angry about. To be honest I don't think we would have won the league that year anyway but I definitely think we would have finished closer to Celtic."

FC Sion are currently no better than sixth in the Swiss table, but Brellier hopes the return to mainland Europe will see him in contention for titles again. Few of the player's admirers from his time in Scotland could have imagined he would be unable to break into a team who have spent much of the season scrapping away for their Championship lives. "When I came at first I had a few injuries so I was not prepared well and not in the best of fitness," Brellier said.

"The team also suffered a bad start to the season then changed the manager. The new manager brought in some players he knew and things started to go a bit better but that is football. When a manager brings in his own players and they are doing well then they just tend to keep playing. I can understand that but I am still young and I know I am a good player so I felt I had to leave."

Brellier was linked with a move to Rangers under Paul Le Guen prior to joining Norwich, but there were no takers from Scotland this time around. "I had a few offers but not from Scotland and when I knew Sion wanted me things went very, very fast because it is a place which is close to my home, and the club can play quite often in the European cups so I think it is a good move for me. My hopes for the future are just to start enjoying my football and maybe win something."

Taken from the Sunday Herald