Hearts boss Jefferies dismisses claims he's under orders from Romanov

In a positive statement of intent, the manager also revealed he and Lithuania-based director Sergejus Fedotovas will meet on a more regular basis from now on to maintain lines of communication between Riccarton and Hearts' powerbrokers in eastern Europe.

Fedotovas met twice with Jefferies this week whilst on a rare visit to Tynecastle, where he addressed shareholders at Hearts' "ask the club" evening on Monday. Jefferies has outlined his plans for the summer transfer window and another meeting between the pair will take place next month.

Romanov has been accused in certain quarters of influencing Jose Goncalves' exclusion from the Hearts team during the contract impasse with the Portuguese defender. However, Jefferies stated he has never been asked to carry out orders from above and said discussions with all members of the club hierarchy have been positive.

"People twist things and say I'm doing what I've been told to. It's not a question of that because they've never put me in that position," said the manager. "I've given my viewpoints, the board have listened and I've listened to their views. I don't have any complaints. Together we will agree to make the right decision and take things forward. Right now, they are happy with things and I'm happy with things. Long may that continue."

The recent launch of direct Ryanair flights between Edinburgh and Kaunas offers greater opportunity for face-to-face meetings between members of the Hearts board and senior management. "The regular flights start at the end of the month and then Sergey in particular will be over more often because he is closest to Mr Romanov," continued Jefferies.

"We plan to have another meeting. Both sides have taken on what the other spoke about this week so we will try to sit down again. Sergey has asked me to think about one or two things and he's heard my views on some things which he can take back. We'll take it forward into the next meeting. We had a couple of meetings last week and there hasn't been a single thing to concern us. Everything has been positive.

"Sergey gave honest answers to the shareholders and, on my side, I haven't had a problem. They know they have an experienced manager and somewhere down the road we will both manage to have common ground to do the right thing for the club. I get wee bits of feedback that they're happy with everything and they think the working relationship is good. We are communicating with them."

Jefferies meets frequently with senior Edinburgh-based Hearts officials, including managing director Campbell Ogilvie and sport director Alexandr Metlitski.

"I have a meeting every fortnight with people at the academy," he said. "There's myself, Billy Brown, Tino (Konstantin Kornakov, assistant to sport director], Alex and Campbell. These meetings are designed to follow up things we've been discussing. We'll continue to have them. In between, Sergey gets involved and somewhere down the line we will be working well together to come up with the best way forward."