Reports today would suggest that amongst the three front-runners for the Hearts manager’s job, it’s Artmedia Bratislava coach Vladimir Weiss who is the current favourite.
Weiss, who is clearly keen on the post, is due in Edinburgh this weekend for more talks with Hearts representatives. His recent track record with Artmedia is impressive (they won their domestic league and cup double last season), but with little or no experience of British football and English not being his strongest language, one would have to doubt whether he truly is the most suitable candidate that Hearts can find.
Another of Hearts’ targets, the enigmatic ‘Iceman’ Mr Thordarson, was allegedly top of the shortlist if you believed several of the tabloid newspapers this week. However Thordarson’s current club IA Akranes are saying that no-one from Hearts has been in touch with them, and that the last they heard of this interest was back in the winter time when it was first rumoured. So either some dodgy dealings are going on behind the scenes, or the papers have got it badly wrong in their desperation for a story.
So…..will we be any further forward by this time next week? Who knows……..
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I can think of something to say here though. It does seem Weiss is the favourite and as I have said on other parts of the forum. Yeah he won 5-0 but lost the second leg 4-0 to Celtic. Sweet mercy the pain. He speaks little English, I admit I am no Boris Johnson when it comes to speaking English (yes sarcasm lowest form humour etc), but surely he has to be at least handy with the lingo?
It sounds as though he can speak English but not as well as he can speak other languages, with one of them interestingly being Russian. This latter fact will sit very well with the owners won’t it?
I wouldn’t necessarily hold a 4-0 defeat by Celtic against him – I’m sure we can all think of similar results that Hearts have suffered. It seems the tabloids are indeed scrabbling around so I’m going to try not to believe anything until it’s all done and dusted.
Another example of the press talking nonsense is all the headlines saying “Thor Ticks All The Boxes” click on the stories and you find that he is the one saying it and not Hearts. Funnily enough with my experience of Football/Championship manager through the 90’s and up to now I have led Hearts to the Championship umpteen times and Euro success so I personally feel I tick all the boxes too. In fact I may be too big for the job lol. Anyway is it just me or does Weiss look a little insane?
There was another headline where Thor says Vlad should be wary about signing European players … not sure quite what he was getting at, but I don’t think that would go down well with our Vlad. And someone who knew him at Stoke said he’d demand full control over the team, which also wouldn’t go down too well with our Vlad. As for Weiss, well… his name is Vladimir and he speaks Russian, which would probably go down VERY WELL with our Vlad. An odd thing though is that he apparently got fired from a Russian club before he returned to Artmedia (to win the league and cup double) – which suggests he may be one of those guys who can only achieve success with one club and fails everywhere else (like Big Sam or Le Guen). 12 days to go … lets hope they just appoint ONE of these 2 guys… doesn’t matter which one (he’ll get fired within a couple of years anyway)… just so long as its NOT Zygmantovich
Just saw this on JKB… presumably someone is revealing the link between Romanov and Weiss. “Weiss has been recommended by Vladimir Romanov’s close friend German Tkachenko. Tkachenko met Weiss when he was in charge of FC Saturn. Tkachenko’s sports agency works closely with FC Saturn ……. Tkachecko was previously owner of Krylya where Larry Kingston, Andrei Karyaka (now Saturn’s top player) and former Hearts transfer target Ognjen Koroman (now at Red Star) all played. German Tkachenko now owns a pro-sports agency which works closely with FC Saturn where his former Krylya manager Gadzhiev is now manager. Weiss was recently Saturn manager for 1.5 seasons” So there we have it – Romanov trusts his agent chum, and presumably pays him well for his services. Quite ironic when you recall comments made by Foulkes that Romanov did not like the way Burley used a couple of favoured agents to supply players. Not only does Romanov want to pick the team, he wants to pick the agents as well !! Can we look forward (!!) to a steady supply of players from this guy’s agency, with pressure put on Weiss to play them regardless of their ability ? Could the reason Weiss was sacked at Saturn be that he refused to play some of these guys ? Hmmm… interesting… and potentially worrying.
This is me being surprised… Oh wait nothing surprises me now. I always felt we wouldn’t get a reputable manager and I reckon, as I had said all along, McGhee was never going to be hired anyway and it a basic lesson in appeasement.
It’s been one of those days where I have a had thought about this whole manager debacle and I was wondering why most hearts supporters have started to accept Weiss when he has proven nothing. SH has shown the reason he is most likely up for the job is down to connections rather than management skills. I think as hearts fans we are all tired and just want someone in to manage the club, anyone at all. I don’t think this is healthy from our point of view and I am all for giving people a chance… But it is clear to me that the job is being handed out as a friends agreement rather than with the level headed selection process being implemented. This shouldn’t surprise me. However I am dismayed by the number of forums or newspaper comments where people are accepting Weiss based on him beating Celtic once! I mean for goodness sake even the worst managers in Scottish History have managed this! What are we doing!?! Fair enough on Weiss he may come in and be a revelation but I reckon he will come in and do as he is told. Hearts will see an influx of foreign numpties from Eastern Europe and more Scottish players leave then all the foreigners if they make the grade, a la Velicka, will be moved on for a profit. On top of this I am still at a loss as to what Romanov is getting out of this but all I can think is that he is from Leith and is having a chuckle about how we are all falling for his ridiculous accent borrowed from The Hunt For Red October. I really am at a stage now where I don’t think I will ever go back to Tynecastle. Next up the new stand wont come, we will end up breaking up talks with the council at the 11th Hour and will have to go for Vlads plan B, just like the manager. We were never getting McGhee, it is clear to me that Vlad planned on breaking off talks in the 11th hour there too. Sorry for being so long winded about this folks but I just can’t see anything positive here at all.
Is the chemist shut in your area Dalien? Reading your post, I’m left wondering if you’ve run out of your prescriptive Prozac or not? McGhee broke off talks with Hearts – not Vlad – he said so himself. Supposedly there was a gentleman’s agreement in place since January, but Hearts didn’t act on it until after the season finished in deference to McGhee and Motherwell’s wishes. Again, all confirmed by McGhee himself. After that falling through, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Vlad now decided that an Eastern Europe manager would be better – it can’t have left a good impression on him that he was basically done the dirty on by one of Scotland’s most “respected” coaches. But until the manager of Kaunas is appointed as Hearts manager, there’s still no reason to suggest that he will simply come in to do what he’s told. No news is good news, as they say.
I can see where the comments about Weiss and his single win over Celtic are coming from, but he has just won a domestic double too, so he does have other credentials. But the bottom line is he doesn’t have the things that VR said he would deliver, namely a manager with experience of British football who can communicate effectively with his players!
Dalien, forget the win over Celtic (although I do remember watching it on TV and becoming more “interested” each time a goal wnt in !!) . The bigger picture is that he has taken a wee team and built them into a regular Euro team, so he does a have agood tracjk record at Artmedia. As I said, his spell at Saturn appears to have gone against this – maybe we should overlook this though, since I suspect the “Russian owner” factor may have something to do with it. If he gets appointed, then I wonder if someone (Ogilvie maybe ? ) will explain why the “British experience” thing was ditched in the search. I said a few weeks back that this coming season is my last as a ST holder, unless Hearts start acting more professionally – and I have emailed Hearts to tell them so !! If things go wrong again, I will be emailing them on a regular basis – Vlad will lose a hell of a lot of STs for 2009/10 if he makes an “erse” of this season. Lets hope we get an announcement on Monday/Tuesday.
SJ – Agree with your comments. Although its possible that the story about McGhee being at the top of the steps of the plane, then turning around, may be an exaggeration to save face – he may well have realised his “mistake” much sooner than that (after telling Vlad and Ogilvie that he’d fly to Lithuania), and decided to invent Boyle’s last-minute phone call as the reason. His subsequent comments in the press about the Hearts job being a good one and that more managers need to learn to work with owners suggest to me that he felt a tinge of guilt about standing us up, and wanted to help calm the turbulence. Anyway, its in the past – and we DESPERATELY need the next appointment to work (whoever it is). Another sacking within 12 months will finish us off – we all might as well start supporting Spartans if that happens.
I believe that McGhee was serious about talking to Vlad but I reckon Vlad would have made it almost impossible for McGhee to accept a contract. In essence I believe Vlad would have made it look he was after McGhee, hence the week in Lithuania, and then would have stopped talks citing issues between himself and McGhee (Regarding anything he chose) then he would have went after Weiss anyway. I know this sounds skeptical but Vlad has to go a long way to win me over now. I like everyone else welcomed him to the club and I feel somewhat cheated by him. I understand Weiss has a track record but so did Kenny Daliglish, Souness etc. I reckon the appointment of this guy is a kick in the teeth to us after promising a British manager or someone with experience of the game here at least. Anyway I will believe in the new stand when I see it and am finding it harder to see a successful Hearts team whilst he is owner. And if Vlad isn’t an owner I don’t see who can help Hearts. I really really hope I am wrong.
I feel your pain, Dalien !! Vlad is simply a typical dictator – he does things simply because he can … no ryhme nor reason needed… and no-one close to him dares to question why he is doing it, because he’s loaded and pays them well. So football success at Hearts (as defined by you and me) does not equal football success in Vlad’s eyes. We are most likely stuffed in terms of being a credible football club for the foreseeable future – maybe ever – but at least there is a semblance of a team still playing at Tynecastle. Therefore the fans have to dig deep into their emotions to find reasons to keep going. Sorry … its a depressing outlook, but thats the world we now live in under this regime in my opinion.
SkyNews are now reporting that Weiss will decide on Monday whether to accept the job – which suggests he has been offered it. Any thoughts on who might be invited as his assitant ? Surely they realise we need a British guy as number 2 …. cue Mr Frail again ?
Maybe he’ll get a last-minute phone-call from the Artmedia owner just as he’s boarding the plane to Vilnius !! If that happens, Mr Frail could get the Number 1 job !! Talk about going round in circles….
Just notice all of this hype too. As SH says it looks as though all Weiss has to say is that he will take the job. I understand that Thor never even got spoken to at a serious contract level. If Weiss is using this is a tool to improve his contract with Artmedia or to get the Slovakian job then best of luck to him. I have been saying all along we could end up having Frail as our new manager as he clearly hasn’t left the club as announced a month or so back.
I don’t think the club ever announced that Frail had left – just media tittle-tattle. Actually, there are some important positives if Weiss accepts the offer. First, he will have spoken in Russian directly to Romanov, so there should be less scope for ambiguity about what he can and cannot do at Hearts. Secondly, he is a MANAGER with decent experience – the first since Burley – and he has won trophies. I just hope he can work with a degree of independance, and that Romanov isn’t looking to create the same type of agency setup at Hearts which Weiss had to work under at FC Saturn.