Laszlo vow of silence suggests Romanov has heard enough of public pleas

Published on Sunday 8 November 2009 21:32

IT WOULD appear that Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov has grown tired of his manager's public demands for money to reinforce the Tynecastle squad, after Csaba Laszlo said he could not discuss possible targets without expecting to be sacked.

Laszlo is convinced he needs to strengthen the squad with another striker when the transfer window opens in January, and discussed the matter with Romanov when the club owner made a rare visit to Scotland two weeks ago.

Asked after Saturday's 0-0 stalemate with Hibs if he was confident of getting a new target man, Laszlo replied somewhat dramatically: "If I give you an answer about this situation I am not coach here tomorrow."

That was interpreted by some as a tacit admission that the manager is not confident he will be given the money required to make a new signing. But, while Laszlo remains unhappy about the lack of support he got from Romanov over the summer, there is a far simpler explanation for his words: he has been told he talks too much, and that his discussions with the owner must be kept confidential.

Speaking just days after those discussions, Laszlo described them as "productive" – a word he need not have used if he felt nothing had been achieved. Mind you, he need not have linked himself with hypothetical vacancies at Liverpool or Manchester United, as he has done in public recently, or let it be known that in Uganda he was known as the Magic Man because of his success with the national team.

Such self-aggrandisement in others rankles with Romanov, who may well have let his manager know that further indiscretions could lead to disciplinary sanctions.

Relations seem less frosty at Easter Road, although just as entertaining. The Edinburgh derby is often the setting for heated exchanges between opponents, but on Saturday the most entertaining spat involved two men from the same club. As a frustrating game wore on without a goal in sight, Hibernian manager John Hughes and striker Colin Nish became involved in what we will euphemistically term a full and frank exchange of views.

"It was just a heat-of-the-moment thing," Nish later explained. "He was just telling me if I fell on my erse again he'd pit me on my erse."

The forward looked to be giving as good as he got in this dialogue of the deaf, but there will be no lasting consequences of his falling-out with his manager. "I think he understands it's in the middle of a game," Nish continued. "You wouldn't say that to him if it was in the changing room, but with 20,000 witnesses it was all right."

Hughes accepted that Nish had been left isolated at times by his team-mates, but his verbal volley was an attempt to explain to the striker that he should do more than indulge in self-pity by going to ground and looking for free-kicks to be awarded every time a Hearts defender got the better of him. "I felt for big Nishy," he said. "I didn't think we got enough support to him quickly. What I'm looking for is a big 6ft 2in guy not to be on his backside all the time."

Nish came close to redeeming himself when he almost scored by heading on a shot from David Wotherspoon. "I still don't know how I didn't score with the header," he admitted. "I honestly thought it was in."