Hearts Owner: Win this weekend or you shall be exiled

After he is done messing around with football clubs and making gobs of money however it is he makes gobs of money, Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov should consider becoming a writer for soap operas. If nothing else, the Lithuanian lunatic has a flair for creating drama around just about everything he touches.

Today’s episode of As the Romanov Dynasty Turns features a must-win ultimatium for his players ahead of Saturday’s match and a threat to put them all up for sale if they lose and a fate even worse than that if they lose:

Vladimir Romanov says he will move the players on to “Kilmarnock or whatever club will take them” unless they defeat Dunfermline Athletic on Saturday.

If the thought of having to go play for Kilmarnock doesn’t fire you up, I’m not sure what will. Maybe such a threat would work on those monkeys too. But, alas, Romanov’s psychological warfare hasn’t really sat well with his players. Team captain Steven Pressley explains it this way:

“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.”

Will the Hearts players win and live happily every after? Will Vladimir Romanov send his players to Scotland’s version of Siberia? Will we ever really know who shot J.R. Ewing? Stay tuned to our Scotland Offside blog for what is turning out to be must-see tv.

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Category: Scottish Premier League