Laszlo must ensure his head rules his heart

Published on Friday 30 October 2009 22:20

HARMONY is in the air at Hearts. Csaba Laszlo declared yesterday he had had a "productive" meeting with club owner Vladimir Romanov this week, and revealed the topics discussed included a plan of action for the January transfer window.

The manager would not reveal any details about the number of players the club hope to bring in, far less their identity. But after Laszlo had his hopes of recruiting two more players thwarted in the close season, the signs are positive. The funds available may well be modest, but at least Romanov has appeared willing to discuss a strengthening of the squad.

Laszlo also repeated his insistence, first made after the midweek Co-operative Insurance cup win over Celtic, that he would welcome any incoming sporting director. Romanov himself confirmed yesterday he had discussed the post with Ivan Svabovic, and the manager said, "we need always good guys that can understand football".

It remains to be seen if the appointment of Svabovic will be completed. Previous moves to bring new men on to the staff have either been aborted – as in the case of Eugenius Riabovas – or simply turned out to have been non-starters – Kestutis Latoza being a case in point.

If Hearts win at Motherwell this afternoon, and if they consolidate their improvement in the coming weeks, Romanov may decide that the introduction of Svabovic is no longer as necessary as he had thought. He has said his visit to the club on Tuesday helped dispel some of the problems the team had faced: why, then, should he complicate matters by reintroducing another tier of management?

On the other hand, there is the strong possibility that the harmonious mood of this week will not last, whatever results Hearts achieve today and in the weeks to come. Indeed, Laszlo has already struck a discordant note by saying he was surprised he had not been connected more firmly with the manager's job at Celtic after Gordon Strachan left in the summer, and by claiming he has turned down several offers to work elsewhere.

The manager strove to put a more Romanov-friendly spin on those remarks at Riccarton yesterday, insisting that if he retained the backing of the Hearts players and officials he could be linked with every job in the world without being tempted to move. The players back him all right, but it may take more than such an insistence to persuade Romanov that Laszlo is committed to staying at Tynecastle and working within the restraints imposed upon him.

On Thursday, as Laszlo's comments about the Celtic post and others were becoming known, Romanov issued a statement of his own, carried in yesterday's Scotsman. After taking some of the credit for the win against Celtic, the Kaunas-based businessman recalled some of the difficulties he faced during his first year in control of Hearts, claiming he had had to battle against a "virus" infecting Scottish football.

"I was really shocked when they told me that George Burley and Gordon Strachan shared the same agent," Romanov said, explaining he thought the Scottish game was too incestuous. "No wonder that after they destroyed Hearts, managers got rewarded with promotions and new posts," he continued.

"It is such an attitude to football that I have to fight against. This virus infects the players with indifference. They do not have faith in the future any more."

The relationship between Romanov and Burley, whom he appointed Hearts manager in the summer of 2005, deteriorated within months. Romanov believed then – and appears still to do so today – that Burley planned to move to another club and take Hearts' leading players with him.

Burley, it will be remembered, was very cautious in his public utterances as Hearts manager, as he is, by and large, in his current post as Scotland boss. He did not talk of concrete interest from other clubs, nor did he express surprise at being overlooked for vacancies.

In other words, he kept his head down as much as possible, and kept his team at the top of the SPL. If that behaviour was enough for Romanov to decide to part company with Burley, how much more provoked might the owner feel by Laszlo's comments?

Granted, Laszlo is a more astute politician than Burley, but over the past two or three months he has been in constant danger of over-estimating his ability to talk his way out of trouble. If he were content at Hearts would he really talk about being linked with the Hannover job, or the South Africa job, as he has done? Or is such talk tantamount to putting his CV on the table and trying to ensure an escape route from Tynecastle will be there if and when required?

Laszlo may think that declaring he could take Liverpool to their first title in two decades is no more than an example of the unshakeable self-belief that any successful coach needs. Romanov might not look on it so benignly.