Laryea Kingston keen to extend stay at Tynecastle

After a bad week for Scottish football, there is already some relish building up over events due tomorrow lunchtime at Tynecastle. If ever there was a moment for Heart of Midlothian to put down a marker against Rangers, this is it. Csaba Laszlo’s team have won four in a row since being ripped apart by Celtic in Edinburgh a month ago, and tomorrow will prove whether that progress in Gorgie has had any significant substance to it.

In recent days, they have been coming out fighting at Hearts in defence of the good name of the club. Campbell Ogilvie, the club’s sometimes embattled managing director, and a man who previously served Rangers for 27 years, has said that he loves working at Tynecastle under Vladimir Romanov. Meanwhile, Laryea Kingston, the Ghana midfield player, has gone as far as describing Laszlo as “like a father”, despite the two of them having been at each other’s throat.

If Hearts are to have a chance against Rangers, they may need Kingston back in their ranks. The skilful player has been out for six weeks with a torn thigh muscle and, towards the end of that period of convalescence, angered Laszlo by flying back to Africa for a friendly match between Ghana and Tunisia.

One of Hearts’ higher-salaried players, there has been talk that he may be sold before his contract expires in 2010. Yesterday, however, Kingston was hinting that he may sign a new deal. “I am enjoying my stay here, I am happy,” he said. “Hearts are one of Scotland’s best clubs. So if the club comes to me and wants me to stay for a longer time, then why not? I want to give 100% to this club so that the team can hopefully win something.”

Laszlo faces a dilemma about whether to reinstate Kingston to a winning team — the chances are that he will not, at least not from the start tomorrow. The midfield player, however, is relishing the Rangers match, insisting that he is ready to come back and perform.”I feel very good — I’ve trained all week and everything is okay,” Kingston said. “I got injured with a small muscle tear and then tried to come back too early, and it has taken a long time for the pain to go away.

“This Rangers game is very important for us, especially as we have won four games in a row. Rangers and Celtic are the two top clubs in the country, so it is very important for us to try to beat Rangers, so that people can see that we are \ there.

“The stadium will be full and they will want to see us win. It will be difficult for us because Rangers are a good all-round team but, all the same, we believe in ourselves. We have won four in a row and that gives us a lot of confidence.”

Kingston also went out of his way to claim that all was well between him and Laszlo, despite the Hearts coach’s very evident pique at the player going off to Africa for the match with Tunisia whilst supposedly injured. Kingston also claimed that having to fight his way back into the Hearts team would not be an issue for him.

“It [the row] was not a big thing,” he said. “Csaba is my manager and he is also like a father to me. We are both happy. We are working together in training.

“Even while being out of the team for so long, I am happy to see the team winning all the games. We have a lot of good players. I like the challenge. It will help me to be more serious, it will help me improve my game.”

Ogilvie, meanwhile, has ended a prolonged public silence over his role at Hearts by heartily endorsing the methods of Vladimir Romanov — or so it would seem. The careful and thoughtful managing director seems the absolute antithesis of the gung-ho, unpredictable Romanov in so many ways, but Ogilvie insisted in an interview yesterday that he was happy with the way that Hearts were being run.

Since taking on the Tynecastle job in November, 2005, Ogilvie has often appeared to be a good man in a bad job, but he denied that perception. “In my time here, I have never doubted Vladimir’s aims,” he said. “He wants to take the club as far as he can. We must always aim to be at the top while having realism.

“There is an eastern European business culture and a Scottish business culture. Nobody is saying one is right and one is wrong, we have had a learning process together. We all want the same thing, success for the football club.”

“I have no problems with [Romanov], no problems dealing with him. He does care about the club, I know that. I still live in Glasgow and this myth has built up of what it must be like in here.

“We have had negative publicity, but a lot of it is built on and embellished. I hear about the club getting into trouble for Vladimir’s comments regarding the SFA; if you look back, that has not been the case since early 2006. We still suffer for that, people speak as if these things are happening every day.”

Whatever the case, the Hearts players have a chance to create some positive publicity for the club against Rangers today.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk