Blame it on Vlad’s wild promises

Jefferies fears for the club he captained with distinction and who sacked him in his second spell as boss nearly two years ago.

The Dunfermline boss, 62, is in no doubt Hearts’ downfall started in 2005 when Romanov arrived with far-fetched promises such as winning the Champions League inside 10 years and recruiting World Cup players.

And their troubles have nothing to do with the Jambos supporters.

Jefferies said: “I can’t believe the suggestions that the supporters are to blame. The supporters have been fantastic, they’ve probably kept them afloat, so I don’t know where that has come from.

“There’s only one reason they’re in this position, mis-management and the money wasted on trying to chase certain promises.

“It’s there for all clubs if someone with a lot of money comes in, you either make a success of it or throw it away with bad decisions — and there’s been many of them.

“When you keep throwing money at it there’s going to come a time when it’s going to run out and that’s what’s happened now.

“I’m talking about the football side, because it would be wrong for me to comment on any other part of the club, because I don’t know how they operate or what effect it had on running Hearts.

“But obviously a lot of money was thrown at Hearts. There’s a couple of cup final successes but a lot of the time it’s come at a cost — and that cost cannot be met.

“You see what happened to Rangers and you just hope for the best for Hearts.

“It looks like they will be losing players, although I think clubs will wait and see how things pan out. They’re never going to pay money for players they might get for nothing further down the line.”