Jim Jefferies has been pushed to brink by Hearts owner

JIM Jefferies will soldier on as Hearts manager for the time being - but for how much longer? It was probably only his love of the club and the job which dissuaded him from quitting over the weekend, and even that deep affection for football in general and Hearts in particular may soon be outweighed by the frustrations of working with Vladimir Romanov.

After a life in football as a player and manager, Jefferies, who turned 60 last November, is thought to be financially secure. He doesn't need the money. He doesn't need the hassle. And, if he doesn't get a free rein to mould the Hearts team in the way he thinks best, he could well decide that enough is enough.

Having parted company with Kilmarnock, Jefferies was unemployed and happy to have some spare time when Romanov came calling in the opening weeks of 2010. The Kaunas-based businessman had a reputation for meddling in team selection, but at first appeared willing to leave the footballing side of the club to Jefferies, with whom he was said to have built up a strong rapport.

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This season, however, things have been different. First club captain Marius Zaliukas was excluded because of a dispute over a new contract, and then, more recently, goalkeeper Marian Kello was made unavailable to Jefferies because of reasons which have still to be explained.

The issue with Zaliukas seemed to have been resolved when the defender signed a new contract. Similarly, after a few weeks on the sidelines, Kello was back in the fold for a league match, and it looked as if Jefferies would be allowed to get on with the job of steering an injury-hit squad to third place in his first full season.

Then, at the weekend, both players were left out on Romanov's orders. Jefferies already knew that Kello would not be available, but he was only told he could not pick Zaliukas as the squad prepared to get on the team bus to Ibrox for the match with Rangers.

According to some increasingly baffled employees at Tynecastle, Romanov's reason for omitting Zaliukas was to protect him. Match referee Iain Brines had sent the centre-half off in the past, and the owner was supposedly worried that could happen again.

If you're thinking there's little logic in Romanov's thinking, you're not the only one. He has suggested in the past that Scottish football is corrupt and institutionally biased towards the Old Firm, and at the weekend talked of "the behind-the-scenes fight by football mafia structures for third place in the table".

So, in order to fight against such dark forces and help Hearts' attempt to clinch third place by getting a point at Ibrox, what did he do? Rule out two of the club's key players, the keeper who has been in superb form at times this season and the defender who was the only recognised centre-half available to Jefferies for that game.

Far from helping Jefferies, those actions, albeit inadvertently, can only have helped Rangers. They made no sense from a Hearts point of view, and that is the real problem for the manager. There are limits to his forbearance, and at the moment it is being stretched to breaking point. He displayed his patience when Rudi Skacel was re-signed on Romanov's say-so near the start of the season. Romanov wanted to welcome back the Czech who had been in star in 2005-06: Jefferies' priority was to find a left-back to stand in for Lee Wallace, who faced months out of action through injury. The manager was therefore less than happy when told that Skacel would be signed and a left-back would not, but he reconciled himself to the decision.

Skacel has enjoyed a successful first season back in maroon, but his signing is a rare instance of Romanov getting a football matter right. More commonly, he has allowed personal prejudice to prevail when assessing a player's worth. And, of course, some of Romanov's decisions are taken not from any footballing motives, but through tortuous reasons of his own. This, above all, is what is making life at the club he loves so difficult for Jefferies right now. He is not dealing with a rational employer.

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Romanov is due in Edinburgh for tomorrow evening's game against Celtic, and if Hearts have secured third place by then, as they will if Rangers avoid losing to Dundee United tonight, he may be in a conciliatory mood. But if he is, it will only last for so long before he makes another intemperate intervention, one which finally pushes Jefferies over the edge. If that happens, all the progress of the past year and a half will be in danger of evaporating.

Under Jefferies, Hearts are enjoying their best season since 2005-06, and on a far smaller budget. So the owner has a choice. Indulge his own caprice and continue to alienate the most successful Hearts manager of recent decades, or accept that Jefferies is doing a good job - and leave him in peace to get on with it.

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