Jim Jefferies content with reduced budget

HEARTS manager Jim Jefferies is confident he can work within the increasingly tight financial restrictions at the club. Speaking a day after Hearts announced their debt had risen to almost £35million, Jefferies again insisted he could put out a competitive team on half the current player budget, and praised majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov for ploughing so much money into the club.

"Over the last few years, Mr Romanov has still been ploughing money into salaries. Quite rightly, he's now trying to cut back on them," Jefferies said, referring both to a reduction in losses for the year to July 2009 and to plans to keep driving down costs until the club gets close to breaking even.

"To be honest, it's not my side of things, really. The club have got people who work on that side of things. They're working on it, seemingly it's down from previous years, and there are more qualified people than me to deal with that. I'm on the playing side, and when it comes to the money, it's all about budgets for me. It always has been.

"The bigger picture with the club is other people's responsibility. They tell me what the budget is and I work with that. Hearts have had a fantastic budget, player wise, over the last couple of years. That is being reduced, but even if it was halved it would be a fantastic budget. I'm sure the people above will sort the problem out."

Hearts' revenue next season would receive a considerable boost if they can qualify for the Europa League, and, while the odds are still against them doing so, Jefferies is justifiably pleased his team are still in the hunt. Defeat or even a draw against Hibernian last Saturday would have put paid to the Tynecastle team's hopes of finishing fifth, but instead the 2-1 victory has kept alive their chances of coming fourth. For that to happen they would need other results to go in their favour, notably this evening's match at Fir Park when Hibs meet Motherwell.

Jefferies, however, explained that he would only concern himself with his own team's matches, both at home – against Dundee United tonight and then versus Celtic on Sunday. "It would be a fantastic achievement, but we're still not favourites. We rely on others, which is never ideal, but to get to this stage with a couple of games to go has kept the season alive for us. There was a spell in the season this never looked a possibility."

Hearts looked down and out after losing to Motherwell 11 days ago, but the victory against Hibs has taken them to within three points of their Edinburgh rivals. The manner in which it was achieved, with a late David Obua goal securing the points, has ensured the whole club are going into this evening's home fixture in buoyant mood, although it remains to be seen how Jefferies deals with the absence of the suspended Ugandan against United. Laryea Kingston is also banned – as is United's Morgaro Gomis – while Michael Stewart and Andrew Driver will not feature.

United, already assured of third place and through to the Scottish Cup final, do not have a lot to play for tonight as a team. Individually, though, they are out to nail down places in the starting line-up against Ross County at Hampden, and Jefferies does not expect them to arrive at Tynecastle merely to make up the numbers. Towards the end of his first spell as Hearts manager a decade ago, Jefferies saw his team claim a place in Europe on the final day of the season when a 2-1 win over Hibs kept them above Motherwell.

At the very least, he wants his team to go into the final match of this season, against Celtic, with something to play for. "There's no point worrying about Fir Park. Let's just go and win our game and see what happens. If it gives us a chance going into Sunday, we'll have a full house at home and it'll be rocking."