Following the news that Stephen Frail is being kept on by Hearts throughout the pre-season period I thought I would give my prediction about what will happen at Tynecastle over the next couple of years.Personally I take what Romanov says at face value, I believe that he honestly wants hearts to be a Euro power, I believe that he sees himself as a Roman Abramavich figure that likes the glamour of a football team. However I don’t think Romanov cares whether or not that team is Hearts, in fact he offered his money to other clubs first.
Anyway now that hearts have finished a lowly 8th and there is no sign of Euro football and the best players have all gone I think he cant help but lose interest, we already know that next season is likely to be the last one at Tynecastle but if and when Hearts fail to reach the UEFA cup next year I cant see Romanov maintaining any interest in the Hearts project.Another bottom 6 performance and Hearts fans may actually take action, if they boycott season tickets then the club loses its main lifeblood at a point when they are moving to a stadium of 40,000+ which would mean effectively you could turn up at Murrayfield and get your own wing of the stadium with no need to book, the atmosphere will be non-existent and the turnout will be dire.
Romanov is no footballing tactician, his interventions are personal, he didn’t intervene to get rid of Presley, Hartley, Webster and Gordon because they were bad players, he did it for personal reasons, similarly we know he effectively disposed of Burley, Rix etc for the same reasons.
On the topic of management and playing staff I think it’s reasonable to assume that any club known to be run and bankrolled by a controlling dynasty are going to find it very hard to attract either strong independent management or players of the calibre that Hearts have lost over the last few years. What self-respecting well-known player/manager would want to tarnish their own image with a stint at the ‘circus club’? On a similar point as HFC are paying the highest wages in the country outside Glasgow it means that in the long run wages will have to be capped and cut in order to try to balance the books, which will further repel any careerist players who are considering playing for Scotland’s 8th best team.
On the topic of management and playing staff I think it’s reasonable to assume that any club known to be run and bankrolled by a controlling dynasty are going to find it very hard to attract either strong independent management or players of the calibre that Hearts have lost over the last few years. What self-respecting well-known player/manager would want to tarnish their own image with a stint at the ‘circus club’? On a similar point as HFC are paying the highest wages in the country outside Glasgow it means that in the long run wages will have to be capped and cut in order to try to balance the books, which will further repel any careerist players who are considering playing for Scotland’s 8th best team.
My prediction is that Romanov will keep running the circus until the end of next season, I don’t think he will bring in an independent manager because I think he likes the control, however my prediction is that hostility from fans and poor economics will eventually make him pull out, there's no need for him to try and own a euro footballing power if they don’t get in to Europe.
At the end of next season I predict Romanov will pull out and leave them with Murrayfield, a huge debt and a shattered fan base. Even from a Hibs perspective this is bad news, the hilarity and novelty of the ‘big team’ being bankrupted will have worn off long before the end of the first season without a derby. In short, unless there are big changes then Hearts are fucked…
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