It’s all gone quiet over there - at Tynecastle

By: Graham | January 9th, 2008

We’ve heard it all before, of course. As soon as Robbo went, the word was out that a major manager would be coming. Ranieri was mentioned. Bobby Robson came north to talk with Romanov. More Italians and then even some Germans expressed interest. We got Burley. After ten games of the season, Hearts fans were grateful for Burley. Unfortunately, Burley seems to have been not grateful enough in return for Romanov and the club switched to a management rotation system - possibly as a nod to Ranieri’s brief interest, which has seen us drop from Champions League challengers to praying that they don’t reintroduce two-team relegation. The threat of a big name manager arriving has been used a couple of times in the intervening period but, as with the promise of big name players, nobody ever comes.

This is probably the reason that, since the announcement (covered here) of Stevie Frail’s elevation to Caretaker Manager and the search for a new manager, excitement amongst Hearts fans has been muted, to say the least. Gorgie has not been playing host to bus loads of managerial wannabes - of any level - and even the transfer market speculations are revolving around which players are going rather than who’s coming in. Bolton may be looking at Velicka and an inflated price of £2 million has been mentioned. The fact the Velicka is still a FB Kaunas player means that his sale will not do much to release funds for replacements. On the plus side, it appears that Pinilla’s continued counselling sessions are going well and, in his own words, he is only 15 months or so away from resolving his personal problems.

However, I can now reveal that Vladimir Romanov’s son Roman has been secretly studying for the necessary coaching badges over the past year and a half and is shortly to be announced as the CEO of a new venture, called Heart of Midlothian Managing Enterprises (HOMME). As soon as the papers are returned from Companies House, HOMME will be appointed ‘manager’ of Hearts. This will be a new concept in football club management, in that all decisions will be made, not by one person, but by the board of directors of HOMME. At the moment, the board comprises Roman Romanov and the company’s executive director in charge of team relations, Vladimir Romanov. Let the new era begin!