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In its team having three Lithuanians, the Edinburgh club owned by Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov was left without a head coach on Monday - as part of a mutual agreement, John Robertson, who led the team for half a year, stepped down from his duties.
Former legendary Hearts player J. Robertson, who took over the coaching position of the Scottish capital club in November of last year, replaced by Craig Levein and helped the team achieve one victory in the UEFA Cup, reach the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup and League Cup, but failed to secure the fourth place in the league that would guarantee a spot in the UEFA Cup tournament.
According to J. Robertson's contract with Hearts, his work was to be evaluated at the end of the season, but due to disappointing performance in the national championship, many questions arose about his future. Recently, the coach's position became even more unstable due to rumors about possible candidates to replace him - names like D.Advocaat or T. Venables were even mentioned.
Although initially Hearts club stated that they were not planning to dismiss J. Robertson, after losing to Rangers in the Scottish Premiership, he was given time to think about his future in the team, and on Monday, after a three-hour conversation with general manager Phil Anderton, the coach refused the offer of an assistant coach and decided to step down from his position.
In Saturday's match against Celtic, former assistant Donald Park is expected to temporarily take over the coach's position, however, it is still unclear who will become the new coach - it is only speculated that the ambitious V. Romanov would like a famous strategist. By the way, earlier in Lithuania, rumors suggested that Valdas Ivanauskas, who left Kaunas, could become the coach of Hearts, but he ultimately rejected this possibility.
