Jim Jefferies: Why I refused to stay on as Director of Football at Hearts

Aug 3 2011 Exclusive by David McCarthy

JIM JEFFERIES knows he could still be a Hearts employee today. Director of football no less, with a hefty salary and the club tie and blazer to go with it.

But sometimes your sense of pride and loyalty to a lifelong friend are more important than a wage.

Jefferies has been wronged. Finishing third in the league last season and starting this campaign with a draw at Ibrox, another away from home in Europe before losing to Dundee United at the weekend, earned him nothing but the sack from a club owner who operates outwith the normal parameters of decent behaviour.

But at least the 60-year-old was still offered another job by Vladimir Romanov. Billy Brown wasn't and Jefferies couldn't stand for that.

The now ex-Hearts chief has always been the boss but Brown has been at his side for every minute of his managerial career since the pair teamed up at Berwick Rangers in 1988.

They moved together to Falkirk, then on to a Scottish Cup-winning stint at Hearts before having a crack at the Premiership with Bradford.

When that adventure ended, the pair were out of work until Kilmarnock came calling and when Jefferies left there to return to Tynecastle 18 months ago, there was only ever going to be one man he'd be taking as his assistant.

So, when Romanov deemed Brown to have no role in his latest managerial reshuffle, Jefferies decided he couldn't stay.

There were other reasons - being manager one day and having then to work with Paulo Sergio, who had taken his job, would have damaged his pride.

And then there was perhaps the simplest of reasons for not wanting to be the director of football - Jefferies believes he still has too much to offer as a manager.

Speaking to Record Sport yesterday, there was neither bitterness nor recrimination from the man whose removal has sparked outrage among most of the Hearts support. He is too long in the tooth for all that.

He just wanted to clarify why he couldn't stay with the club and even went as far as thanking the Russian-born Lithuanian banker for giving him the chance to return to Tynecastle.

Jefferies said: "I was offered the director of football job but it didn't sit comfortably with me. Billy and I have been together for a long time in the game and it didn't feel right for me to stay on at Hearts if he wasn't being given the same opportunity.

"He spoke to me and told me to do what was right for me, but it just didn't feel right to stay if he was going.

"The circumstances of me leaving the manager's job to take up that position didn't feel right either. If I had been away from the club for a year or so, and then they'd asked me, I'd probably have felt differently but the timing isn't right.

"Another reason I turned it down was that I still think I have something to offer in management. The desire to win is still there and for as long as that is the case, I want to work with players.

"I am disappointed to have left Hearts but I want to thank them for giving me the chance to come back 18 months ago."

Jefferies could have come out with all guns blazing but feels there is nothing to be gained by that. He added: "I knew what the situation was with the owner when I first went to the club. Most of the time you could work around things. We were making it work as best we could.

"I knew at the time I was appointed, it was going to be different with the track record the owners had and with all the rumours about how the club was run.

"But we were getting through it. The owner wasn't there every day and that was one of the difficulties because the lines of communication were not always what they could have been. But I don't regret going back. It's another experience to add to everything else I've done in the game."

While he and Brown have left Hearts, their first-team coach Gary Locke has remained for the time being at least. Jefferies hopes the former player he mentored keeps his job.

He added: "I've had a chat with Lockey and told him to do nothing hasty. He felt awkward and a loyalty to Billy and me but he is young and a very good coach with his future in front of him.

"I didn't want him doing something on the spur of the moment and I think the new manager will find Lockey to be vital as he will have to be brought up to speed on the Scottish game. I don't know if he will be kept on. That's for the new manager to decide but I hope he does stay."

And he wants the fans to stay onside with the club as well, for the sake of the players he has left behind. Any talk of boycotts must remain just that, he says.

Jefferies said: "I don't think a boycott would be the right thing to do and I would ask the fans to not consider it. It would hurt the players to have no support.

"Hearts are a great club with a wonderful tradition. The fans are brilliant and always stick by the club. I am grateful if some of them think Billy and I did a good job but I don't want them turning their back on it. Everyone knows I am a Hearts man and this hasn't changed that. I will go back to watch them again.

"In fact, I am swithering about whether to go to the Europa League tie on Thursday. I want to see the boys finish the job we started in Hungary last week.

"But I don't want my appearance there to be a distraction or to get in the way. I'll probably make up my mind on Thursday afternoon but whether I go or not, I'll be desperate for them to win."

As Jefferies begins a period of unemployment he has accepted the situation with the maturity you'd expect of a man of 60.

He said: "The owner made his decision and I although I don't have to agree with it, I have to accept it. He wanted a change and as owner of the club, he has the right to do that."

Taken from the Daily Record