Hearts about to lose the wrong internationals

By: Ian Rose | April 19th, 2007

Heart of Midlothian is probably the most international team in the SPL, largely because of chairman Vladimir Romanov’s connection to Lithuanian football (there are eight Lithuanians on the squad), but the side also includes Greeks, Czechs, Senegalis, etc. It’s one of Hearts’ strengths that they, unlike much of the league, look outside of Scotland for a huge amount of their talent. However, as in any proud footballing nation, there are those that criticize Hearts for their reliance on non-Scottish players, especially the unusually high number of Lithuanian players. Romanov is seen by some as using Hearts to develop young Lithuanian talent for the national team. If there’s anything that a struggling Hearts club can afford to lose, its a few of these players. Instead, they are about to lose two of their key international players from outside of Romanov’s homeland. Both Takis Fyssas and Julian Brellier announced through their agents this week that they would not be returning to Hearts. Fyssas, a Greek international with 60 caps, has played 50 games for Hearts in the past two years, and is probably their strongest defender. Brellier, the team’s lone Frenchman, was a key to last year’s breakout season for Hearts, feeding Paul Hartley countless goals over the past few seasons. But both players have had frosty relationships with Vladimir Romanov. Then again, everyone who has ever worked for Vlad Romanov (including the half-dozen coaches he’s gone through in the past few years) has a frosty relationship with him - its pretty well documented that the man does not play well with others. His attitude has led to the loss of Hartley, Steven Pressley, and others, and now looks to be the main reason for these players to leave as well. When will someone, anyone, buy out Romanov and give Hearts the chance to have a real owner, instead of a painful distraction like Vlad?