Eduard Malofeev: The story of the infamous interim spell - part 2

Easter Road. November 8, 2006.

If you were in the away stand that Wednesday evening, it is a result and performance which should still irritate. One which, when you cast your mind back to that night in Leith, sends a shiver down the spine, striking every single one of the 33 vertebrae on its way.

Gordon; Tall, Pressley, Berra, Goncalves; Neilson, Aguiar, Hartley, Zaliukas, Mikoliunas; Velicka. A 4-5-1 which looked more like a 5-4-1. The team didn’t record a single shot on target as Hibs won 1-0 in the League Cup. It was a 1-0 thrashing. The Leith side’s only victory over Hearts in the competition’s history.

“Hibs had such control of this game that, in a comical moment just before half-time, Malofeev turned away from the pitch and cupped his hand to his forehead in disgust, much in the way that a Victorian actress would at the first hint of labour pains,” one writer wrote.

Before the match Julien Brellier had left Easter Road in a taxi after finding out he wasn’t in the squad. After the match the media were briefed that Ivanauskas’ absence was indefinite, while no member of the coaching staff appeared. It was left to Jose Goncalves, the Portuguese centre-back, to address the press, admitting the team were “embarrassed” by their showing.

Supporters were only catching a glimpse of the nonsense on game days, the defeat to Hibs the nadir of Malofeev’s spell. Behind the scenes it was just as chaotic. Just as bamboozling. 

“It was a time when there were 60 or 70 players on the books,” MacDonald explained to Hearts Standard. “There were so many people, so many players you were getting split into these splinter groups. I always got to go with the goalkeepers which was still good in terms of working with Craig [Gordon], Banksy [Steve Banks] and the numerous other goalies who would come in and out. When you went to join in with the team you would then splinter into whatever group you were with that day. 

READ MORE: Eduard Malofeev: The story of the infamous interim Hearts spell - Part 1

“I remember when he first took charge. Can you remember the old Soccer AM when they used to take the piss out of the Soviet warm-up, guys jumping in the air throwing their hands to their toes and all the stupid training? That was literally how his training was. It was wheelbarrow races, proper old school. This is at a time when the game is starting to change quite a lot. At that time when he came in you were very much into the sport science but this was very old school. The sprints, running up and down the pitch with people on your back, wheelbarrow races. Even the goalie training, there were a lot of forward rolls, hand-eye coordination. You’d throw the ball up in the air, do a forward roll, get it up, catch it. It was just very different to anything we would do.”

By the time Malofeev’s fourth game in charge came around there were suggestions it would be his final one due to a lack of UEFA coaching qualification with FBK Kaunas boss Eugenijus Riabovas set to take charge. And you better believe that if it was going to be Malofeev’s final act, he was going to leave a lasting impression. The build-up to the match in Grangemouth was punctuated by talk of a plot to have Steven Pressley stripped of his captaincy.

Pressley was in fact conspicuous by his absence at the Falkirk Football Stadium and Hearts would drop further points, conceding a late equaliser to Russell Latapy. It prompted an angry reaction from Malofeev with Velicka off the pitch waiting to get back on. He would be sent to the stands for manhandling the fourth official.

Riabovas was just one of a number of people who came associated with the club during a perplexing time at Tynecastle Park. Go back to Anatoly Byshovets, the former South Korea, Zenit St Petersburg and Russia boss who appeared in the early days of Romanov’s involvement. He would be known for turning down the music as Hearts celebrated a famous 1-0 win in Basel. Then there was, along with Malofeev, Anatoly Korobochka, Alex Koslovski, Pedro Lopez, Angel Chervenkov and the mysterious ‘Igor’, “Vlad’s guy” whose business card simply said “expert”, according to Mark Donaldson.

As for Chervenkov, he at least left a relatively positive impression from his work with the reserves and first-team.

“Chervenkov was a good coach,” Velicka told Hearts Standard. “What I liked about him was that he was very calm. He was never screaming, he was explaining easily. You could go to him easily and ask something you don’t understand. In Scotland everyone was very enthusiastic, he was very calm, do this, do that. There was no stress. No screaming, kicking bottles. He was not like that.”

MacDonald added: “To be fair, Angel didn’t speak very much English but he was one of the better ones. He was a good man, he was just trying to get his point across. He was mostly with the reserves, mostly young Scottish and Northern Irish boys. A lot of the time it was his message getting lost in translation and boys ripping the pish probably half the time because he was probably saying the wrong thing. It was a little bit unfair on him as he was one of the better people that came into the club.” 

When Rangers came to Tynecastle Park six days after the draw at Falkirk, Malofeev was still in charge. And things were about to take another turn. Pressley and Paul Hartley were back in the squad, the latter wearing the captain’s armband, the former on the bench.

Koslovski, acting as the club’s sporting director, said regarding Pressley: "We analysed Monday's game against Falkirk on the computer and saw that every defender played well."

Off the pitch things were coming to a head. That afternoon at Tynecastle proved tempestuous with protests outside the ground. Writing in the Guardian, Ewan Murray said: “Perhaps it was inevitable, but it was certainly earlier than even the most cynical of Scottish football analysts had expected. Hearts supporters - confused, battle-weary, frustrated and ultimately angry by the time events had unfolded here - launched into the first full-scale revolt over the management regime of the club's owner, Vladimir Romanov.” 

Hearts lost 1-0 to a Nacho Novo goal. What could have happened in the aftermath may well have witnessed the collective self-combustion of 14,000 home fans that day. MacDonald, who was on the bench, has recounted to Scarves Around the Funnel podcast previously that he was told to warm-up with a view to replacing Gordon. Malofeev held the baffling view that Gordon had deliberately let the goal in. Whether it was his role in the Riccarton Three or the presence of former goalkeeper coach Jim Stewart who moved to Rangers that season, the coach was suspicious. Paranoid. For the teenage MacDonald it was “panic and confusion”.

“I’m a rabbit in the headlights, never played a first-team game wondering why he is shouting at me. I panic because at that stage we only had one sub left to use. I’m warming up behind Craig’s goal and he’s like ‘what are you doing?’ He’s thinking I am coming over to give him information but I’m like ‘I don’t have a clue, I’ve been told to warm up by the manager’. I was warming up for five minutes and nothing else was said. 

“That probably would not have been the easiest situation to go into your debut if Craig got subbed with ten minutes to go against Rangers under those circumstances. Everyone would have found that a strange one. It would have been a toxic atmosphere to go into because there was already a lot going on at that stage. If it was one I went on into it might actually have not been the best thing for me. As much as you get on against Rangers at Tynecastle it would have been brilliant but not in those circumstances. Not that it would have been a personal attack on me but we all know it can be a difficult arena to play in. Especially as a 19-year-old boy who had no first-team experience at that point.”

It was also a difficult afternoon for Nerijus Barasa and Mikoliunas, both targeted by the home support for criticism. Their involvement was perhaps viewed as favouritism. Koslvski decided that the situation needed more incendiary language, accusing Hearts fans of “discrimination”.

It was a comment he walked back later that week. Well, kind of. He noted “high emotions help no one” but said the “players felt hurt” as he detailed Barasa’s “25 passes, 13 tackles and 15 headers” which were on par with “Christophe Berra, Ibrahim Tall and Marius Zaliukas”.

“It was such a difficult period,” MacDonald said. “There were a lot of boys who couldn't understand him and a lot of Lithuanian players who could. It didn’t help things overall at the club at that time. 

“They were great guys, great for the changing room. Miko, Chesney and Zal all did well because they were the ones who integrated better with everybody. That was down to their character. There were a lot of cliques at that point because there were so many players. It must have been difficult for them because no matter how well they were playing they were always getting tarred with the Romanov brush. They weren’t making the decisions, they weren’t spies in the camp. They are professional football players trying to earn their money like everyone else.”

Meanwhile, seeking to explain the team’s troubles under Malofeev, Romanov also added fuel to an already raging fire which was engulfing the club. "Well, if you've got five people in the team working for Rangers and Celtic, what do you expect?"

The Russian-born Lithuanian businessman did try to quell the increasing storm, attending Malofeev’s sixth and final game in charge, a 0-0 draw at Inverness CT...

Part 3 of Eduard Malofeev's infamous interim spell at Hearts will be published on Hearts Standard on Tuesday.