Interview: John Robertson, former Hearts manager, on the troubles at Tynecastle

He was Vladimir Romanov’s first manager, but John Robertson tells Moira Gordon of his concerns about a potential financial implosion at Tynecastle

SUCH an integral part of Hearts’ past, when he looks into the club’s future, John Robertson fears a doomsday scenario.

The first manager to part company with the Tynecastle club under Vladimir Romanov, after he was asked to consider a demotion to reserve team coach, Robertson says that, while many may not agree with the way the Lithuanian-based banker runs the club, the owner has the right to do as he pleases while he continues to invest. The enduring worry, though, is what happens when he eventually walks away.

“Based on the turnover the club may be unsustainable and the budget may be unsustainable but it survives for now because he [Romanov] keeps paying it,” says Robertson. “He is putting his money in but the question I and all the Hearts fans would love to know the answer to is what happens when he gets bored or frustrated and decides enough is enough? Unless he, through his company, is prepared to swallow the whole debt, and accept a token gesture allowing someone to buy it then the club will eventually go bust. Is that the doomsday scenario? We don’t know but, remembering my history from school, the Mayans say that in 2012 the world would end!

“Allegedly, we are £30-£35 million in debt, and how does he get his money back? The stadium’s worth £20m at best – so he’d still have to swallow a £15m loss. But then where do you go? Does it mean moving into Murrayfield? Moving in with Livingston? I’ve said before – if it’s an AFC Heart of Midlothian then it’s an AFC Heart of Midlothian. These are the questions that we don’t have the answers to, and only one man does. But do I think it will happen one day? Probably. I just don’t see anybody out there with the money to buy the club – well, not so much buy the club, because you could probably get it for a pound – but to service a £35m debt.

“I don’t see anyone battering the door down to Vladimir Romanov and offering to pay £35m of debt, as well as having to pick up all the contracts. Is it a crying shame? Well, the previous incumbents accepted the deal and the new guy has come in and run the club the way he wants. There will still be a Hearts but for a few years they might just not be the same size or shape as they were originally.

“If you have to start again then you start again. How many businesses have gone bust because of the financial crisis? Loads of them. Do they crawl into a corner? Or do they start again and try to run things as prudently as possible. I would love to see Hearts going back to being sustainable, with 20 first-team squad players, three goalkeepers and then the rest made up with their good, young players coming through rather than 45-man first-team squad on wages they can’t afford to pay and never will be able to afford to pay and have never been able to afford in the first place.

“Fans can moan and complain but that’s the nature of the beast. Did you hear the Hearts fans complaining when he [Romanov] was bringing in Goncalves and Skacel and Bednar and Jankauskas and Fyssas and all these lads who took Hearts to second in the league?”

“Has it all been worth it? If you looked at the money going in and the rewards coming out, you would say ‘no’. He has to look at it and decide is it worth it and if you look at the statement last week it would appear he is thinking ‘no, I’m not prepared to put in millions any more because I’m not getting what I want.’ In the past, in Lithuania, he has probably had no problems with planning when he has wanted to build something and no worries from the Lithuanian FA with regards disciplining his players or managers or coaches. He probably has become frustrated but I genuinely believe that he did think when he first came here that he could split the Old Firm and challenge for honours.”