Heart of Midlothian football club need a manager to put them back on course. But who will be mad enough to take a job that has so many disadvantages. You are forced to play the chairman’s “favourites”, he also makes a lot of signings and it has been the toughest job in football to hold onto.

John Robertson, George Burley, Graham Rix, Valdas Ivanauskas, Eduard Malofeev and now Stevie Frail have all felt what it is like to work under Vladimir Romanov. You get no control but have to foot all the blame. Not exactly enticing.

The question has to be asked; who is going to be stupid enough to take over Hearts? Romanov has stated that he wants a British manger and the names in that have been banded about are former player and manager; Craig Levein and the favourite for the post, Mark McGhee. Hearts have requested permission to talk to the Motherwell manager which was turned down; however Romanov is used to getting what he wants and will stump up big bucks for a successful manager.

Why would McGhee want to leave Motherwell though? They are in Europe next season, have a host of young stars and it looks like he could be starting to build something special. On the other hand he will receive money at Hearts to build a new team and have the chance to once again break the Old Firms stranglehold which I don’t believe will be possible at Motherwell. On top of this there is talk of some of the steelmen’s top stars leaving in the summer including former Rangers youngster; Ross McCormack. Should he come to Hearts he needs to be sure he will have full control. One wonders if this will be the case.

Vlad has come out publically and said that his next manager will have his full backing and that he will not interfere. Fair enough but we have heard this all before. Rix came out and told the world that he did not have much control over the side. Frail was not given control as proven by the Ibraham Tall incident which I will delve into in my next post. And last but by no means least; Burley was not allowed to say anything but it is well known that Romanov was not happy with some of his signings.

The only way that we can attract a manager of Mark McGhee’s stature is by Romanov giving him full backing on the team, backroom staff and signing policy. MGhee has stated this in recent interviews. He is potentially the best manager since Burley as he has shown at Motherwell this season. It wouldn’t exactly be difficult amid the puppets and nobodies that we have accumulated over the past 3 years.

I personally would love to see Mark MGhee or Craig Levein as our manager as he would bring a brand of football to exite the fans and really get bums back on seats at Tynecastle. Come on Vlad let’s start again by getting a manager who knows British football inside out. Give them time to sort out the mess that you have created.

Unfortunately I have just found out that Mark McGhee has pledged his future to Motherwell so it is back to the drawing board for Hearts who must now move to plan b. Whoever that may be.