Hearts 2005-06: Romanov's heart-breaking revolution

History suggests that Romanovs and revolutions rarely end well — and Vladimir Romanov’s Hearts 2005–06 Scottish football revolution was no exception. Yet amid chaos, sackings and scandal, Heart of Midlothian came closer than anyone to breaking the Old Firm’s monopoly, becoming the first club outside of Celtic and Rangers to finish in the top two for a decade.. With George Burley, Graham Rix and Valdas Ivanauskas all in charge, Hearts somehow delivered one of the most dramatic and dysfunctional success stories in modern Scottish football.

That they did so with three different managers, a string of sackings, resignations and protests, means Hearts could be classed as one of the most dysfunctional, successful teams in history.

Romanov, a Lithuanian national, initially came to the rescue of the Edinburgh club. Hearts in 2004 were set to play their games at Murrayfield having agreed a deal to move from their long-standing Tynecastle home in a bid to stave off their dire financial situation.

Romanov’s initial’s investment secured Hearts future at Tynecastle and by the spring of 2005 he took a controlling stake in the club.

Former Ipswich Town boss George Burley was brought in as manager that summer. In a case of goodbye chip pan, hello fire, Burley had left Derby Country after guiding them to the Championship play-offs citing strained relations with the board.

Burley inherited a strong side, including Scottish internationals Craig Gordon, Steven Pressley, Andy Webster and Paul Hartley. But that summer also brought a fast-track route for boosting the Hearts squad through the judicious use of the loan market. Hearts brought in eight loan signings in the first season under Romanov’s tenure – six of them from Lithuanian club Kaunas, in which Romanov was also an investor.

Things could not have started any better. Hearts won their first eight league games to top the table, including beating champions Rangers. That was in no small part down to Marseille loan signing Rudi Skacel – one of the few not to join from Kaunas – scoring in his first seven games.

But just as quickly as it had begun, so it began to unravel. The day after Romanov increased his stake in Hearts to 55%, he shocked the football world by announcing Burley’s departure due to irreconcilable differences. While full details never emerged, Romanov’s hands on approach was widely reported to be a factor.

Despite draws in Burley’s final two games ending Hearts winning start, they remained top of the table and were targeting a big-name appointment.

Hearts could be classed as one of the most dysfunctional, successful teams in history.

The Edinburgh club had talked up the likes of Bobby Robson, Kevin Keegan, Claudio Ranieri and Ottmar Hitzfeld as possibles for the job. So the subsequent appointment of Graham Rix was underwhelming. The latter’s burgeoning reputation as a coach at Chelsea had careered off course after he was handed a 12-month jail sentence in 1999 for unlawful sex with a 15-year old girl, and subsequent short-lived spells in charge of Portsmouth and Oxford United did little to revive his managerial reputation.

But the failure to attract a big-name was perhaps unsurprising given the chaos that was ensuing as the managerial search was taking place. A week after Burley was sacked, so to was chief executive Phil Anderton who was leading the search for a new manager. That prompted the resignation of chairman George Foulkes in protest. The appointment of Romanov’s son as Anderton’s successor did little to counter Foulkes assertion that Romanov was behaving like a dictator.

Rix was unable to build on Hearts’ strong start, in part potentially because Romanov appeared to not only be picking transfer targets – the squad inflated to 35 after 11 new signings on January - but possibly also the team. Reports in February after six changes were made for a game against Dundee United suggested Romanov was picking the team, something the club did little to convince otherwise.

Rix soldiered on until mid-March before he was sacked after four months in charge, as too was director of football Jim Duffy – who had, after all, spent a whole month in the role by then.

Key facts

• 20 signings during 2005-06 season

• 8 wins to start the season, a Hearts record

• 7 games to start in the season in which Skacel scored, an SPL record

Surprisingly perhaps it was not until this third managerial appointment that Romanov turned to Kaunas. Former boss of the Lithuanian side, Valdas Ivanauskas, became interim manager. He took over a team which, while having dropped out of the title race in falling 14 points behind Celtic, was still in second place and in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup.

While the distractions continued – notably a stand-off with centre back Webster which resulted in him being transfer-listed and ultimately head to Wigan via a contract loophole which even garnered its own Bosman Ruling style name (the Webster Ruling) – Hearts season remained on course.

Hearts held on to second spot, pushing one of the Old Firm out of the top two for this first time since Motherwell did so in 1994-95.

They also won the Scottish Cup, again breaking Celtic and Rangers’ grip on the trophy for the first since Hearts themselves won it in 1998. In many ways though Hearts’ cup final was the 4-0 win over Edinburgh rivals Hibernian in the semi-final. In the final itself they just about scrambled over the line with a penalties win against Gretna – the only third tier team to ever reach the final

While a successful season was over, the chaos of course was not. In fact, it deepened. Within a few months into the following season Ivanauskas was on sick leave, an interim coach was in place and core player unrest had reached new levels. Romanov’s ultimatum that players would be sold to “Kilmarnock or whatever club will take them” if they did not beat Dunfermline in their next game, had prompted Pressley, Hartley and Gordon – the so-called Riccarton three – to voice player unhappiness at the club. All three had been sold by the start of the following season.

Managers came and went, and Hearts fortunes began to slide. The return of the talismanic Skacel in 2010 provided some respite – the highlight of which was the 5-1 routing of Hibs to win another Scottish Cup in 2011.

Skacel left in the summer – though in some impressive trolling continued to rile Hibs by picking the 51 shirt for his brief spell at Dundee United – as Hearts financials woes increased. While Hearts managed to cling on to their Scottish Premiership status in 2012-13, the seemingly inevitable administration came that summer – ending Romanov’s tenure with a 15-point penalty that consigned Hearts to relegation the following year.

How we ranked them

We have five categories of greatness from our five-star All-Time Greats category at the top to our one-star Blinkered Greats category at the bottom. In defying the self-inflicted odds and breaking up the dominance of the Old Firm rivals, Hearts made it into our three-star category.

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TOUCH OF GREATNESS

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Listen to the full podcast:

Join hosts Graham Dunn and Jamie Rooney and guests in were they raced through the Hearts story to relive the unforgettable Hearts 2005–06 season — a wild ride of ambition, chaos, and silverware under Vladimir Romanov. As part of our quickfire Boxing Day special (along with San Marino, John Aldridge’s Tranmere Rovers, the Arsenal Stadium mystery and Oxford United’s Milk Cup winning side).as they relive the unforgettable Hearts 2005–06 season — a wild ride of ambition, chaos, and silverware under Vladimir Romanov.

👉 Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Podcasts

Former Oxford United winger and current coach Chris Hackett was one of the 11 signings Hearts brought in January 2006, linking up with former boss Graham Rix. In keeping with the chaotic surrounds, Rix was gone two months later and Hackett played just two games before moving to Millwall in the summer.

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