John McGlynn returns to Tynecastle as Vladimir Romanov’s tenth manager

JOHN McGlynn’s appointment as the tenth Hearts manager of the Vladimir Romanov era was confirmed last night.

The 50-year-old leaves Raith Rovers after five and a half years in charge to return to the club where he spent ten years as a coach between 1996 and 2006. His decade at Tynecastle included two short spells as caretaker manager where he experienced Romanov’s style at first-hand.

Recent history shows managers at Hearts tend to have a short shelf life and McGlynn has agreed a one-year contract with the option for another year.

He is charged with succeeding Paulo Sergio, whose final act was to bring the Scottish Cup back to Gorgie in emphatic fashion, defeating Hibernian 5-1 in the final.

Sergio and Hearts parted company after the Portuguese rejected the club’s offer of a new contract on drastically reduced terms.

McGlynn’s appointment chimes with the new sense of austerity at Tynecastle, with Romanov determined to make the club more self-sufficient and less reliant on the funding of Ubig, the investment group which owns Hearts.

The club released a number of highly-paid players at the end of the season, including Ian Black and Stephen Elliot, and it seems likely Craig Beattie, Rudi Skacel and Suso Santana have also played their last games for Hearts.

The core of the cup-winning side remains, however, and McGlynn will be expected to augment this with the best of the club’s youngsters.

“John’s track record in developing young players is outstanding,” said a Hearts spokesperson, “and one of the key criteria for the appointment was an ability to successfully integrate youngsters into a senior squad which can compete competitively at the top end of the table.

“He also knows the club intimately having previously spent ten years as a coach here and we are confident he can take the club forward and build on the success of last season’s William Hill Scottish Cup triumph. We would also like to put on record our appreciation of Raith Rovers’ co-operation in this matter and wish them all the best for the forthcoming season.”

McGlynn has already worked with a number of the Hearts youngsters after they were loaned out to Raith last season. Midfielders Jason Holt and Denis Prychynenko had spells at Stark’s Park before returning to Tynecastle, where they were used sparingly in the Hearts first team towards the end of the season. The club will now hope they can step up to help fill the sizeable gap left by the influential Black. Jamie Walker and Jonathan Stewart were two more who were loaned to Raith, with Walker in particular catching the eye.