Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon has revealed the full extent of Vladimir Romanov’s dislike of Celtic as he recalled his move to Sunderland.

The Scotland international moved to the Black Cats in 2007 for £7million with add-ons seeing the fee rise to £9million.

During that summer there was also significant interest from Aston Villa.

After an 11th place finish, ex-Celtic boss Martin O’Neill was wanting to strengthen, including the No.1 position with a new goalkeeper to take over from Thomas Sorenson.

It led to an attractive offer to Hearts, more than what Sunderland offered.

Yet, Romanov was reluctant to sell to Villa due to the “Celtic connection”, despite Roy Keane, who had played for the Parkhead side in 2006, managing Sunderland.

Gordon would go on to make 95 appearances for the club, although three of his five seasons were hampered by injury.

Vladimir Romanov and Eduard Malofeev had a unique way of working. Picture: SNS

He told Scarves Around the Funnel podcast: “I think they [Aston Villa] ended up offering more money but because of the Celtic connection there at the time Mr Romanov didn't want to sell to them so that was never going to be allowed.

"But they did come in right at the death to try and take me there. It was already too far down the line with Sunderland.”

Malofeev madness

Gordon had plenty of experience of the quirky inner workings at Tynecastle under Romanov, including the appointment of Eduard Malofeev as caretaker boss in the absence of Valdas Ivanauskas.

Vladimir Romanov often threw barbs at Celtic and Rangers during his time at Tyencastle. Picture: SNS

Despite his reverence and success as player and manager for the Soviet Union and teams such as Dinamo Minsk and Dinamo Moscow, Malofeev was a divisive character at Tynecastle, remembered most for an infamous interview and wheelbarrow races at training.

He could well have been remembered as being the manager who subbed Scotland’s No.1 for conceding a goal against Rangers.

During his caretaker spell he oversaw a 1-0 defeat at Tynecastle to the Ibrox side and Gordon revealed he was in danger of being taken off, the accusation being that he allowed Rangers to score

"I remember nearly getting replaced during a game against Rangers at Tynecastle. I think Nacho Novo scored a deflected strike and the coach thought I had let it in deliberately to let Rangers win the game. I could never do anything like that.

“It was just the way they thought, people were out to get them and people had maybe been bought off

“I’d seen Jamie MacDonald get sent to warm up and wondered what the reason was as I wasn’t injured. It could have been another Kepa [Chelsea goalkeeper] situation where I was refusing to come off because I hadn’t done anything.

“Things like that did go on and I didn’t really know what was happening at the time. It was Jamie who said to me after the game ‘I was nearly coming on there, they thought you chucked the goal in’.

“That was the thought process at the time that I was possibly going to get replaced but thankfully managed to stay on the pitch.”

Strange atmosphere

For Gordon it summed up the nature of the club under Romanov.

He added: “The whole atmosphere was just really weird, you never knew what the coach was thinking, what the board was thinking, what was going to happen next, who was going to be in a job, out a job.

"They could easily sack a player or coach at any stage. We had seen Lithuanian players come in and leave abruptly. You never really knew where you stood.

"That was quite a strange feeling for a number of players, I guess I was fairly lucky because I was an internationalist at that point and knew it was unlikely to happen to me but for the rest of the players it was a very strange time.”

The extent of ex-Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov's dislike of Celtic revealed - and Eduard Malofeev's bizarre Craig Gordon accusation