What a prick this man is

[CarraLegend]

Weird c***

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...ian/6091336.stm

 

Hearts majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov has warned his players they are all for sale if they do not win this weekend, BBC Scotland has disclosed.

And captain Steven Pressley responded with a statement voicing the players' unhappiness at affairs at the club.

 

Romanov says he will move players on to "Kilmarnock or whatever club will take them" unless they defeat Dunfermline.

 

And he has warned that he would then play a team of youngsters against Celtic the following weekend.

 

BBC Scotland disclosed the latest turn of events only days after Romanov granted head coach Valdas Ivanauskas two weeks' leave on the grounds of ill-health.

 

Second-top Hearts had lost 2-0 at home to Kilmarnock last weekend, leaving the Edinburgh club eight points adrift of holders Celtic.

 

Eduard Malofeev was appointed interim head coach of the Tynecastle club during Ivanauskas' absence.

 

And, at Fridays pre-match media conference ahead of Dunfermline's visit, Pressley revealed that there is "significant unrest" in the dressing-room.

 

Flanked by team-mates Paul Hartley and Craig Gordon, Pressley said in a statement that the last two years had been "testing for the players".

 

He said the squad wished Ivanauskas well but stressed that trying to maintain team discipline and unity had become "an impossible task".

 

"This is a statement on behalf of a number of players," he said.

 

"This statement is no reflection on Eduard Malofeev. My first impression is that he is an honest and diligent man.

 

"I would like to wish Valdas a speedy recovery, but whether he returns or not is almost incidental in association with the problems related to this football club.

 

"I have tried, along with the coaching staff and certain colleagues, to implement the correct values and discipline, but it has become an impossible task.

 

"There is only so much coaching staff, a captain and certain colleagues can do without the full backing, direction and coherence of the manager and those running the football club.

 

"While publicly I have expressed the needs for unity, behind the scenes I have made my concerns abundantly clear.

 

"The last two years have been testing for the players and together they have faced a number of challenges.

 

"I would have worked hard to have retained unity.

 

"However, due to circumstances, morale understandably is not good and there is significant unrest in the dressing-room."

[Ostrich Man]

f***in nuts all that.

[DJM]

He's a complete t***. It seemed last season that finally someone might break the Old Firm stranglehold and make the game up here almost semi-watchable. Then he went mental.

[Ostrich Man]

living in scotland will do that.

[DJM]

Steady...

[libero]

living in scotland will do that.

Didnt do it for me.....

 

[Guest Jack Bauer]

NYR is posting, did he have dinner with him once?

[New York Red]

What a d*ck. All the players should leave.

 

F*cking gangster.

[Gilps]

The fiver's take

 

As that fella from the Crying Game or Francis Begbie would tell you, you should always look below the surface before making a decisive judgement. Take Hearts, for example. On the face of it, all is well: they have broken the Old Firm hegemony, the most admirable achievement in Scotland since somebody took Take The High Road off the air in 2003, and lie second in the SPL - the same place they finished last season. But despite the good results, there has been increasing discontent at the club since the megalomaniacal head honcho Vladimir Romanov came on the scene - and it was all confirmed today when the club captain and part-time philosophy student (look at his beard, three-quarter length coat and satchel!) Steven Pressley released a statement saying that bears often deposit a bit of fibre in the woods.

 

"There is significant unrest within the dressing-room," bristled Pressley, absent-mindedly tossing a pint glass over his shoulder. Since Romanov arrived, Hearts have been through more bosses than a profligate fashionista: six in 18 months, with Eduard Malofeev taking over this week from Valdas Ivanauskas, who has stepped down for a fortnight due to ill health. "I would like to wish Valdas a speedy recovery," added Pressley, "but whether he returns or not is almost incidental in relation to the problems associated with this football club."

 

Pressley's intentions are commendable, but then so were Edward Woodward's in The Wicker Man. And given Romanov's penchant for dishing out P45s, he could come to a similarly grisly end. (Obviously we're not suggesting that Romanov will have Pressley whacked here folks, just that he might get rid of him in a footballing sense. But if he does burn him alive in a giant man-shaped basket, remember where you heard it first.) "I have tried along with the coaching staff and certain colleagues to implement the correct values and disciplines," continued Pressley, grabbing an envelope marked 'my own fate' and sealing it, "but it has become an impossible task." Today's events haven't made it any easier

Edited October 27, 2006 by Gilps

[Knox_Harrington]

NYR is posting, did he have dinner with him once?

I'd be disappointed if he didn't.

[Tosh]

He who pays the piper.... ask Roman!

[LFCNeil90]

And they drew 1-1

[denver]

The weird thing is most Hearts fans I know still think he's basically the second coming. Hearts were ina ton of debt when he bought them out -- and, interestingly, they still are. He didn't pay it off, he just moved it to the bank he owns!

 

A lot of the financial stuff is just dodgy as hell. He also owns Kaunas (who we played a wee while ago, if you remember) and he buys players with Kaunas and then loans them to Hearts (so half the new players he brings in Hearts don't even own)

 

He also likes mouthing off to the press a lot -- they actually changed the rules in Scottish football so he could be charged. He was constantly complaining about refs etc. but because he doesn't hold a position at the club (his son is chairman) he couldn't be charged. Now the rules allow majority shareholders and owners to be done (and he was in fact censured last week). UEFA are also wanting to charge him for claiming the ref was bribed/biased in their CL qualifier.

Edited October 31, 2006 by denver

[ManxRed]

Pressley's intentions are commendable, but then so were Edward Woodward's in The Wicker Man.