Romanov has destroyed this fantastic club says Dave McPherson

But McPherson says Romanov has “destroyed” the club he won a Scottish Cup back with in 1998.

And as his old side prepares for next Sunday’s League Cup Final against St Mirren, he said he has sympathy for stand-in coach Gary Locke.

Locke is set to be replaced by Peter Houston in the build-up to the final and Mac said: “The worse Romanov treats his players, the more cup finals they seem to get into! But I think this one will be a bit more difficult because of the circumstances that they’re in.

“Romanov has more or less destroyed the club — the whole community and the heart and soul of the place, just by the way he’s run the business. The financial aspect of it has been run into the ground, although he’s put the money in. Everything recently has been negative.

“When Wallace Mercer was in charge at Hearts he had plenty to say, but it was always positive. He always put Hearts at the forefront. With Romanov, it’s just been negative, negative, negative and I think that needs to change.

“There hasn’t been much from him recently but before that there were lots of comments that were embarrassing to the club.

“Hopefully, that changes sooner rather than later.”

Houston is set to be unveiled tomorrow but McPherson said: “Anyone who takes the job must have a list of questions — ‘what have I done here? How can I work? How long have I got? Who’s going to be in charge? Are the players going to get paid? What staff are going to remain at the club? Are we going to go into administration?’”.

“There are so many unknowns for anyone coming into the club at the moment.

“The positive things are that there are buyers out there. If Romanov gets his sensible head on and takes a decent offer, then things can start to turn around.

“Romanov has put a lot of money into the club and won one or two trophies, and I suppose those are the positives. But the downside is that the heart and soul of Hearts has gone at the moment.

“I’ve been to the occasional game — I was at the Motherwell game, where they lost. I was certainly made welcome, but I felt the whole atmosphere wasn’t as good as it should’ve been.

“The club’s support is tremendous, it always has been and it always will be. I think they’re just wanting change sooner rather than later.

“They put a lot of money into the club recently — which I was really surprised at — but it shows you the depth of feeling they have for the club and the community.

“I don’t think it will take a club like Hearts that long to recover.

“They have a great youth development system and they’re bringing through a lot of good young players, so from that perspective they’re looking good.

“But they still need one or two experienced players around them.

“It needs someone fresh to come in — a new owner, not necessarily with a lot of money, but to run the business properly.”

McPherson reckons Hearts’ recent slump means they can hardly be viewed as favourites to lift their second trophy in ten months.

He said: “I wouldn’t say they’re favourites at all. I think it’s pretty evenly matched.

“On their day St Mirren can beat anybody — they proved that by beating Celtic.

“It would certainly mean a lot to Hearts financially to win.

“It would help keep the club going until the end of the season until, hopefully, a new owner comes in.”