If Vladimir Romanov wants the best for Hearts, then he must build a new main stand

An odd thing happened at Tynecastle last week. Just when most of us were wondering where Vladimir Romanov was, and how things were going with Heart of Midlothian’s erratic and invisible majority shareholder, up popped Campbell Ogilvie, the club’s managing director, to offer a smooth and affectionate perspective on the affairs of Hearts.

Ogilvie, one of Scottish football’s most respected administrators – a man who has earned “plaudits across Europe”, no less – chose to end a period of wise silence on his part by giving a rare interview. And yet, as it turned out, the schmoozing reassurances that Ogilvie offered about Romanov and the state of Hearts could not have been more badly timed.

No sooner had Ogilvie decreed that all was well in Gorgie, that Romanov had the best interests of Hearts at heart – and that a lot of the criticism of the owner was “embellished” – than Romanov’s boys once again failed to pay salaries into the Hearts employees’ bank accounts. And this on the very morning that his players were facing one of their biggest games of the season, against Rangers.

Let’s just recap that Ogilvie perspective again, for fear of misrepresentation. “This myth has built up [about Romanov] and of what it must be like in here,” he said. “But I have no problems with him. He does care about this club, I know that.”

Really? Do you really care about a club if, for a second time, you do something as insulting as fail to pay your employees? And if you really care that much, and have that much passion for Hearts, aren’t you at games rather more often than thrice a season? OK, granted, there are the much-cited “cultural differences” at work here – a phrase most beloved of Romanov’s biggest apologists – but that doesn’t explain his recent shabby behaviour.

Not paying a man for a day – or a month’s – work is an insult that crosses all borders, faiths and cultures. Once can be deemed carelessness. Doing it twice looks like couldn’t care less.

I’ll say one thing about this Hearts palaver: Ogilvie, for one, will be highly embarrassed about it. He is a courteous, respected man who is the very embodiment of Presbyterian propriety and fair play. In private, for all his sugar-coated wafting last week, he must be appalled by some of these events at Tynecastle. Ogilvie says that he has “no problem at all” with Romanov but, in truth, if the boot was on the other foot, and Ogilvie was the man in charge, he would deplore these failings and have them gouged from Hearts.

As for Romanov himself, the old question remains: who knows? Is he for real? Is he kosher? Does he, as Ogilvie insists, want the best for Hearts? If there is a man anywhere in Scottish football who knows the answers to these questions, he is more informed than the rest of us. What is for certain, however, is that the anxiety around Hearts will not go away until Romanov sells the club to a more transparent – and visible – party.

The inherent risk around the club remains. With his majority shareholding standing at roughly 82 per cent, it is difficult to control what Romanov wants to do with Hearts. Power in these situations is held by share ownership, not shareholder numbers.

Few, I think, adhere to the bleakest view of all, which is that the Lithuanian somehow wants to shut the club down or grab its land. Yet enough Hearts fans still have grounds for concern about what Romanov is up to. And no end of success on the field – like beating Rangers on Saturday and climbing to third place in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League, as welcome as that is – can camouflage the fact.

There is one looming test of Romanov’s sincerity at Hearts – the erection of a new main stand. The plans are there, and Romanov has mooted it often enough, but let us see it happen, without fuss, without sudden controversies over bills, and we can take things from there. If Romanov wants to prove to Hearts fans that – as Ogilvie has insisted – he “wants the best” for the club, then a new main stand is the test.

If the day ever comes when, my press ticket to hand, I am able to walk through the opulent front doors of such an edifice, I will personally kiss Mr Romanov’s ankles in gratitude. But I fear I may be kept waiting.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk