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Almost three months of fairytale success in Edinburgh slowly begins to turn into complete chaos. Over the course of ten days, the leader of the Scottish Championship sensationally left not only the team's head coach G. Burley, but also the highest-ranking members of his leadership - club president G. Foulkes and chief executive P. Anderton, both resigning from their positions on Monday.
All the turmoil in the club began two weeks ago. Initially, the main shareholder, businessman from Lithuania Vladimir Romanov, increased his ownership to 55 percent and prepared for a complete takeover of the club, followed by the shocking departure of coach George Burley.
Later, the club's management assured that this would not disrupt future plans and promised to appoint a new famous coach. While the search was ongoing, the Hearts team was led by interim coach John McGlynn, and although he managed to secure two victories at first, last weekend in the Edinburgh derby, they were defeated by the city neighbor Hibernian, ending the unbeaten streak. This loss allowed Glasgow Celtic to equalize with the league leaders in points by winning against Dundee Utd on Sunday.
Today it was revealed that all the troubles for Hearts have not ended yet. Unexpectedly, the club was also left by one of the most talented directors in the country, P. Anderton, who was dismissed, and the president who took office a year ago, Lord G. Foulkes, decided to resign in protest against his colleague's removal. It is speculated that P. Anderton and V. Romanov may not have agreed on one of the candidates for the head coach position, C. Ranieri, as the latter announced today that he has decided not to pursue these duties.
As announced to the London Stock Exchange, the club's presidency will be taken over by V. Romanov's son Roman, temporarily taking over the position of chief executive as well. This means that, for now, the only person remaining in the Hearts leadership who is not part of V. Romanov's circle is the financial director Stewart Fraser, as the other positions are held by the club owner's daughter Julia Goncharuk, as well as the directors closely related to the Ukio banks, Sergei Fedotov and LFF President Liutauras Varanavicius.
"They had almost a year during which they could not accomplish everything in the Hearts club as I would have liked. They had the funding and all my energy, but I did not receive the response I expected. At the moment, I have no desire to leave the club," said V. Romanov through his representative.
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"Romanov is behaving like a dictator, and if he continues to do so, there will be opposition against him. I helped him come here, and now I regret it very much," said G. Foulkes to BBC radio - "Phil Anderton worked for only six months and he did a great job - ask anyone in Scotland. We not only led the Premier League but also doubled the attendance and were preparing to expand the stadium. Now, when Romanov has a large share of the stocks, he started acting like obsessed with megalomania."
The former Hearts president also stated that he regrets not resigning after coach G. Burley was dismissed, and said that the main candidate for the strategist position, Bobby Robson, may reconsider taking on these responsibilities.
"I still regret letting George Burley go. I think it was a big mistake. I know Bobby Robson was one of the main candidates, but I wouldn't be surprised if he now rethinks everything, and it would be difficult for him to advise. On one hand, I want the best for the Hearts club and someone like Bobby Robson would be great, but on the other hand, it would not be easy for anyone to work with Vladimir Romanov," admitted G. Foulkes.
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Such news completely disturbed and angered Hearts fans - it is reported that dozens of them have already staged a protest at the club's headquarters and demanded an explanation for the reasons behind these events, while others are preparing to protest later. Interestingly, just a month ago many of them even likened V. Romanov to a deity, but suddenly everything turned upside down and now there are doubts about the intentions of the Russian-born businessman.
Let's remind that the former champions of Lithuania FBK "Kaunas" and the winners of the Belarusian Cup Minsk "MTZ-Ripo" clubs owned by V. Romanov began the revolution at Hearts earlier this year when he became the main shareholder of the Edinburgh club. With this takeover, three Lithuanian national team footballers - midfielders Saulius Mikoliunas, Deividas Cesnauskis, and striker Edgaras Jankauskas - joined the team.
