Axed Jim Jefferies reminded of Hearts job's shelf-life

Published Date: 02 August 2011
By Alan Pattullo
DESPITE the expensive-looking scarf he has taken to wearing on this latest visit, there is nothing sophisticated about Vladimir Romanov's treatment of a Hearts legend, one who has always longed to end his career at Tynecastle.
The silk assassin struck without warning, although his mere presence in the city should have been enough to give Jim Jefferies the jitters. Romanov does not tend to waste such opportunities. It says something for him at least. If there is a crazy decision to be made, then he is prepared to make it in person. As for an explanation from Romanov, we may have to wait a little longer.

Even then it is likely to come in the form of a rambling, cryptic statement posted on the club's official website, one laying the blame on outside forces and malevolent instruments of the media intent only on causing the club harm.

Yet Jefferies is someone who only ever wanted the best for Hearts, and who had managed to provide an upturn in fortunes. He is understood to be taken aback at the pace with which events unfolded yesterday, but not completely surprised. What will surprise some is that he was willing to put a sleepless night's worth of thought into the director of football role offered to him by Romanov yesterday rather than dismiss it out of hand. Jefferies is a proud man, but he is also a Hearts man.

Making his decision more complicated is the fate of long-term assistant Billy Brown, who was yesterday relieved of his duties and offered no such alternative role. But Jefferies and Brown, it must be recalled, had been preparing to take separate paths following their departure from Kilmarnock, just prior to the duo's sudden return to Tynecastle 19 months ago. Indeed, the manner of Jefferies' arrival back at the club means he should have anticipated the way he departed Tynecastle yesterday, just two games into a league season and with his side half-way through a very winnable European tie.

When Jefferies answered the call to return to Hearts it was just days before a Co-operative Insurance Cup semi-final against St Mirren at Fir Park, and hours following a Csaba Laszlo press conference designed to preview the following day's league match at St Johnstone. New Hearts managers don't tend to get too much time to bed themselves in, as Paulo Sergio, if it is indeed the former Sporting Lisbon coach who clocks on for duty at Riccarton today, will learn. They don't tend to get too much time full-stop, something to which Jefferies has always been alert.

Earlier this year, when pondering what we in this country consider are the extraordinary practices of the club's owners, he told me: "You have to understand, it's different. They work differently. It's the norm for their country. It's just hard for supporters, players and journalists to accept."

It would sound daft if Jefferies now sounded off about Romanov's decision to remove him so summarily from the manager's position. Unlike most others, Jefferies has not been excommunicated completely. Romanov thinks enough of him to want Jefferies to remain at the club. Indeed, Jefferies is understood to be flattered by the offer, strange though it may seem. He is, though, clearly concerned about Brown's plight, while Gary Locke, another member of a tight-knit coaching team, could also be retained by the club.

Jefferies could yet finish his career at Tynecastle. Having been involved in the game for 22 consecutive years - he has only ever spent a total of five weeks with no connection to a club.-One of the headlines on the official Hearts website's news feed yesterday was highly apt. "JJ: We deserved more," it read. The story referred to Jefferies' belief that his side had done enough to warrant at least a goal against Dundee United on Sunday, though it was easy to interpret it as a comment on that which had befallen both Jefferies and Brown in the previous few hours. They both deserved more. Certainly Jefferies might have expected to leave the post of manager in a more dignified manner than at the wheel of a car yesterday, one which was forced to speed past flashing camera bulbs. However, the applause of the fans gathered outside the ground was noteworthy.

No-one is suggesting that Jefferies had the support of 100 per cent of the fans. There were some grumbles about the length of time since a competitive win, and even that, back in March, was a narrow, odd-goal in five victory over St Mirren. Yet it's not as if Hearts had lost every game played since and this season's performances have included a solid 1-1 draw at Ibrox, and a creditable scoring draw in Hungary against SE Paksi.

The majority were content to be led by a manager so clearly devoted to his job, and who was delivering an upswing in results and certainly performances since the days of his predecessor. Jefferies and Romanov did not always see eye to eye. The manager was aghast when first informed that he would need to welcome back Craig Thomson following his suspension after pleading guilty to a sex offence earlier this summer. Then there was the interference, with Marius Zaliukas ordered off the team bus, on Romanov's insistence, prior to its departure for Ibrox in May. No-one could work in such circumstances and then agree with every decision made by the owner, and Jefferies didn't. But he did also concede that it's the way the owner chose to operate, and he would be naive to think that the presence of a traditional Scottish manager should change that.

Taken from the Scotsman