Alan Pattullo: Canny operator Jefferies takes Hartley blow on chin

Published on Tuesday 27 July 2010 15:12

NO-ONE told Jim Jefferies it was going to be easy on his return to Tynecastle after almost a decade away. And of course it hasn't been.

The present Paul Hartley brouhaha aside, there have been instances of dressing-room in-fighting followed by the untidy departure from the clubs of the likes of Christian Nade and Michael Stewart. He has had to deal with an errant midfielder in Laryea Kingston, while at the same time coping with an injury problem which even Jefferies, a veteran of nearly 30 years of management, described as the worst he had encountered.

In the circumstances, the former skipper's achievement of leading the team into the top six has to seen as brilliantly accomplished. When the boat has been rocked, he has settled it again. It is not to say he is fully-paid up member of the Self Preservation Society, but he is a canny operator.

He knows he might just have to grin and bear it as he runs the rule over the likes of Adrian Mrowiec and Kari Arkivuo, with the Hartley deal dead for the time being. It is hard to believe he can be entirely satisfied with this arrangement but he is prepared to accept it. "The club made a decision," he said this week. Note, the club.

Jefferies became the longest serving manager during his stint at Kilmarnock. At Rugby Park, too, he was confronted with complications in the form of a chairman who liked to get involved in all aspects of the club, including team affairs. But Jefferies did not just endure it, he often thrived in the straitened circumstances.

There were eyebrows raised when Vladimir Romanov recruited someone from outside his own sphere of influence, but Jefferies seemed the perfect choice. We said it ourselves here.

He knew the club inside out and is regarded with affection by every maroon foot-soldier. He is also savvy enough to realise that not everything is the final call for the manager at Hearts, just as it was not at Kilmarnock and Bradford City before then. Indeed, it would be no surprise if Jefferies, even after seven months in the employ of Romanov, would offer a surprise response to the question of most awkward boss he has worked under. Geoffrey Richmond, the chairman of Bradford City as the club headed for administration, would win hands down. The assumption has been that Jefferies would have no truck for the interfering ways of an owner such as Romanov, but he is far from unfamiliar with the breed. Indeed, his lengthy career can perhaps be attributed to him being attuned to knowing how to cope with them. He has adapted in order to survive. Why do anything any differently now he is in situ at Hearts in what could be the last big club of his managerial career?

He isn't going to let a 33-year-old midfielder's reported reluctance to sign a document apologising for a perceived previous misdemeanour threaten his own circumstances, if that is indeed the reason for the breakdown in talks. As ever with Hearts, it is left to conjecture. As one source said: "It does sound like the kind of thing Romanov would insist upon."

But there are other reasons for puzzlement. Hartley and Romanov have already appeared to be reconciled in the time since the revolt by the so-called Riccarton Three.

Jefferies has a job on his hands, that's clear. It's hard enough trying to re-claim former glories, harder still when the working conditions have been altered to the extent that rather than an unpopular former catering magnate, it is an absent landlord based in Lithuania who is now calling the shots. But Jefferies' reaction has been circumspect. His tone has been measured. In the Evening News yesterday he almost appeared to shrug off the Hartley episode. "He was one of a number of players we are interested in," he said. "We have some inquiries going on elsewhere. The club made a decision and we must move on."

It is entirely possible that Romanov simply did not see the sense in sanctioning a move for a player who is not only past his best, but was also set to embark on what has so often proved fruitless attempts to re-capture something that has gone. Perhaps Jefferies began to sense this too. He does, after all, seem more intent on signing Craig Bryson, a player with his best years ahead of him and, crucially, a potential sell-on value. Jefferies is, after all, a strategist. To survive at Tynecastle, one has to be.

Time of reckoning approaches for Lennon

The outcome of their maiden European tie is not always a reliable indicator of how a Celtic manager is set to cope with the challenges ahead. Gordon Strachan endured a memorable if nightmarish debut against Artmedia Bratislava but went on to recover and lead Celtic to the brink of the last eight of the Champions League the following season, while also collecting three successive league titles.

Tony Mowbray, on the other hand, led Celtic to a notable win in the second leg of last season's Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Moscow. But it proved to be the result of his short reign, with his removal from the manager's post creating the vacancy which has handed Neil Lennon the chance to shine. He approaches tonight's clash with Braga with the advantage of having been in charge for the run-in last season, although the team is much-changed since then and the stakes are now higher. Lennon has not been idle since Celtic closed their season with an eighth straight league victory.

He has shown himself to be an enthusiastic operator in the transfer market after tying up six transfers this summer. His decisions are becoming ever more weighty ones, their consequences more meaningful.

Does he play Aiden McGeady tonight and see his value decrease due to this resulting in the winger being cup-tied? Does he play new-signing Efrain Juarez at right-back, where he starred for Mexico during the World Cup finals, or instead utilise him in midfield, his preferred position? And does he elect to play Gary Hooper, whose transfer from Scunthorpe was only completed yesterday morning, at all?

Not yet 40, Lennon could tell Bob Dudley, the new chief executive of BP, a thing or two about being under pressure.