Some encouraging comments from Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov in today’s Scotsman……..if they are to be believed of course!
Almost all Hearts fans’ biggest worry with new manager Csaba Laszlo is his ability to manage his team in the way that he wants, with minimal interference from the board. It’s a task that one would imagine to be an uphill struggle if the records of each of his predecessors are anything to go by, but the new man’s positive influence has clearly impressed Romanov, possibly to the point where he may end up putting full trust in his manager to do what he deems to be necessary to ensure the best future for the Hearts first team.
Romanov said:
‘Csaba Laszlo has plenty of experience working in the football world that allows him to work with me and convince me with a lot of positions where the manager wants to do it his way. He can convince me of that and I can take that on board.
‘So far it has been smooth sailing. There has been no problem whatsoever. Working with Csaba Laszlo is good. You need contact. You need to be in touch and to talk. You must not be afraid of speaking openly and clearly with one another.
‘This time everyone is working very hard and there is no discussion as to whether the training is right or wrong, as was the case previously. The lads are obviously very tired and you can see they are tired but happy with this work. This always keeps my heart content to see the players with smiles.
‘Laszlo is professional and has achieved a lot already. Hopefully he will stand the ideological pressing of those around football.’
He’ll have a better chance of doing that if Romanov leaves him alone to do what he was employed for, so let’s hope that these words point to a more conventional future for the Hearts first team than they’ve been used to in recent years…..
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When he was asked his targets for the 2008/09 season, he said “My target is to get involved in the business of the team less and less often. I don’t want to get into that. I believe that with Csaba Laszlo in charge this dream of not having to do things with the team can come true”. This is fantastic, and what we have all been waiting for since Romanov took over – a manager who knows what he’s doing who Vlad respects & trusts enough to run the team!
Yeah….IF he sticks to it. Personally I think that is an enormous ‘if’ and will remain sceptical until I see clear evidence of him being true to his word.
Fair point MrH. What would constitute irrefutable ‘evidence’ to you?
I think the last couple of friendly games have shown Romanov to being more hands off. The Lithuanian players most people don’t rate didn’t start (I think they were subs) and those that did would, based on the current quality of the squad, probably get in. I suppose the acid test will be the first few weeks. Also I think that an influx from Kaunas could be representative of the past meddlings continuance.
Is that it? Just the number of Lithuanians in the starting 11? To me that seems overtly… well… at best it’s counter-productive, at worst it’s racist. I’ll believe it when Miko has a couple of stinkers he’s dropped from the squad for a few weeks… like any other footballer would be.
However, I will add to that – I think this is going to be the season where Miko finally comes of age & shows us all what he’s capable of.
What would it take? It would take an entire season of it being obvious that the manager was calling the shots….all of the time. Regardless of how good or bad the results are. Unfortunately we have no precedent of Romanov allowing this, so until he sets one we have to be cautious. PS Hope you’re right about Miko – have always felt there was a player in him – maybe just needs the right guidance.
Robbo said there was a great player in Miko, all a coach needed to do was find the key & unlock it. Sadly he never had enough time to do that at Hearts, but maybe Csaba can. I know where you’re coming from with your comments about an ‘entire season’, but I’m choosing to be slightly less pessimistic about the outlook. I said before I’m fed up of being a dejected Hearts fan. Our glass is 3/4 full now, and Csaba’s hand is firmly on the tap.
Its probably quite hard to actually tell if Romanov is still interfering. Elliott kept getting a game in the 2nd half of last season, with no-one accusing Vlad of telling Frail to play him. Yet many fans were quick to accuse Romanov of interference when Frail played Ivaskevicius – is it not equally possible that Frail rated the boy ? So we may still get several odd team selections from Csaba which have nothing to do with Romanov. SJ – 3/4 full already ? Wow … that doesn’t leave much room till it starts to overflow !!
Yeah that’s possible SH. We knew that Frail was very inexperienced and possibly wanted to try things, but when we’d seen what had gone on before, it was little surprise that these sort of conclusions were drawm, rightly or wrongly.
Yes … in other words, it will take a long time with a decent proper manager in charge (like Csaba hopefully) before we lose our suspicious minds !!!
Correct!
SJ I know it seems racisit, but I’m not being racist. Honest. I believe that a number of young or established players were being shunned in order to put these players on TV. In all honesty I liked Miko up until last year and Cesny/Velicka/Zaul were/are reasonably good players for Hearts. I really hope Miko does become the player, I think we all know, he can be more consistently. Come on people be honest we saw Kurkis/Benny/Pilabitis all fail to deliver but they were still rolled out into the team even when it was obvious they shouldn’t have been. If me thinking they weren’t good enough for Hearts is me being racist then maybe I am.
Also we all know that the suspicions are almost entirely right, managers faxing starting line-ups the night before and the Rix saga. Sorry folks but I am pretty set on this one that players coming from Kaunas, regardless of race and ability, were jumping into the team ahead of others. I hasten to add this was at a point where we had others. Now of course I am every so slightly optimistic about the future.
I understand what you’re saying Dalien. There was (and hopefully isn’t any more) a kind of racism at Hearts – a positive discrimination which is no less palettable to supporters than a manager saying he’s not going to play Player X because he’s black. Playing Lithuanians ahead of more deserving players purely on the basis of nationality is completely wrong… and in fact has actually *hurt* some of these players’ careers. Miko is a perfect case in point, because he’s been there since the beginning and is an iconic player. I think he has the makings of a fantastic player, but when he is more or less guaranteed a starting berth because of his birthplace then why bother to try? Why should his ‘replacement’ bother either when they know they’re just going to get dropped no matter how well they do? However… I don’t CARE where the players come from, what race, colour or religion they are… whether they are on loan from Kaunas, Bayern Munich or the Moon. So long as they are good players for Hearts and play like they would die for the jersey & each other then I’ll support them 100%.
Same here SJ.