Vladimir Romanov must get his act together and appoint a manger

Jun 29 2008 Gordon Waddell

SO what is Vladimir Romanov looking for exactly? A manager with a built-in fax modem so he can save on paper?

Has he gone green? Hell, he might as well go green-and-white for all the good he's doing Hearts right now.

But here's a word to the wise for him. If he really does have something up his sleeve, a rabbit in his hat, he had better pull it out pronto.

Like this week. Tomorrow even.

Because for each hour that passes without a manager or coach to guide players through pre-season, the price they pay when it really matters gets a little higher.

Pre-season isn't just about fitness. It's a time to impose philosophy, garner spirit, work on shape, on attitude.

A month's work to set the tone for the entire season.

Yet Hearts are doing theirs without anyone in charge? That takes a special kind of madness.

But why should we expect any less? If the real reason Stevie Frail was packed off on gardening leave last week is that Romanov now has his new man ready what then is the club's owner waiting for? If that's not the reason? What in the world is he playing at?

It's nearly six months to the day since he announced the hunt for a new manager was on in earnest.

And in those six months his treatment of Frail, given the front the coach put on for the club, has been a disgrace.

Right from day one when he was told he was finally getting to pick the team he wanted - then informed that no matter how well he did a "real" manager would be coming in as soon as they found one.

Never mind the fact that from the day he did take over Shaggy produced the kind of form from the team that would have seen them finish third if they had produced it over the whole season. Maybe the writing was always on the wall for Frail but just because you could see it coming doesn't make what Hearts did to him last week any less despicable.

He sat there at every press conference, sometimes three a week, the only public face they had. He took the brickbats and sucked it up because he had to.

Yet all the while he had to try to walk a tightrope with his own credibility both as a coach and an honest guy.

Frail went the entire summer break without a phone call, reading the papers the same as everyone else as Mark McGhee, Vladimir Weiss and now German Jorgen Rober drifted in and out of contention.

But he turns up dutifully to kick things off for them because that's what he's paid to do - and ends up on his deckchair for his efforts? He doesn't just deserve a pay off - he deserves a medal.

And with any luck he'll land a job where he can start actually appreciating the game once more. Ask yourself again why McGhee and Weiss knocked back the job. Question why your highest-paid player isn't turning up for work, why your captain's agent is making noises about his man considering his options.

And consider why Hearts' PR company is binned right when Vlad needs them most, with a group of supporters who have never been more disenfranchised from their club.

Charlie Mann walked away last week relieved he no longer has to try to spin the unspinnable and defend the indefensible - but with the worrying epitaph to his time at Tynie that his man actually wants to communicate less than he does.

Less? Corpses give more away.

This is a time for Romanov to embrace his punters, to be in the country, be seen to be running his club. Not sitting in his ivory tower looking down his nose at everyone in a "let them eat cake" style.

But he's not going to change the habits of a lifetime or the culture he has grown up in now, is he?

And even if Vlad does produce a manager with pedigree will he let him manage?

I tell you what, anyone who renewed their season ticket this summer must have more blind faith than Ray Charles Does Gospel.

Good luck to them. They'll need it.