ANGELO MASSONE swept into power at Livingston yesterday – then vowed not to make the same mistakes as Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov.
Massone is head of the Italian consortium which earlier this week bought out Pearse Flynn to take control of the West Lothian club.
And the Italian group jetted into Scotland to unveil their blueprint for success that they hope will restore the Li
ons to the SPL.
The consortium hope to install an Italian coach at the head of their team, but Massone insisted that they want to build a predominantly Scottish side at Almondvale instead of relying on Italian contacts.
At Tynecastle, club owner Vladimir Romanov has brought in a number of players, coaching staff and office staff from Lithuania in a bid to steer them up the table.
But the Jambos finished last season in the bottom half of the SPL table and Massone stressed: "I have never spoken with Vladimir Romanov but my impression of Heart of Midlothian is that maybe they are too much a foreign team right now.
"We don't think that is the model that we want to apply to Livingston. We want to have a strong team and a mainly Scottish team.
"By taking over here we feel we are basically visiting Scotland and we want to respect that.
"Maybe in ten years' time people will say that I am a Scotsman now and that would be my dream!"
The Italians want to bring former goalkeeper Roberto Landi as the club's new head coach and are hoping to bring former manager Davie Hay – whose son-in-law Tomasso Angelini is one of the four-strong consortium – on board.
Landi has been coach of both the Lithuanian and Georgian Under-21s sides and has met with members of the consortium to try to thrash out a deal to come to Scotland.
Massone added: "We came to Scotland because we really love it. When this chance came up to enter Scottish football, we decided to go for it.
"This is the first time that I have been involved with a football club in this context, I am a lawyer by profession, but I have a lot of contacts.
"I know a lot of people who are involved in the world of football and I know a lot of footballers. I feel ready to take on such a big project like this.
"We still haven't got any deal with a manager or coach, although there are discussions going on.
"There is a deal with an Italian coach called Roberto Landi and we are in talks with him right now. We will meet with him next week to talk over the possibility of him coming to Livingston."
Adding of a possible return to West Lothian for Davie Hay, Massone continued: "David is a great friend of mine and is also the father-in-law of Tomasso Angelini – and he is also a legend in Scottish football and with Livingston. If he wants to become involved with the club again then our door is always open to him and we hope to speak with him about this over the next few weeks."
The consortium members revealed that they hope to buy the stadium from West Lothian Council, but maintained that their main aim over the coming season was to put together a squad strong enough to see them restored to the SPL once again.
To do that they will have to successfully have the embargo placed on Livingston by the SFL lifted and the Italians hope to have that mater concluded by the end of next week.
The club were banned from buying new players after a dispute over unpaid wages with former Livingston defender Emmanuel Dorado, however Massone concluded: "Our first aim is to take Livingston back into the SPL and this will be done through a wider project which will include a restructuring of the club, financially speaking. Obviously we also only have a few players at this minute in time.
"Our footballers won't come only from the same nation as contemporary football allows us to take players from different countries.
"There will probably be players coming here from Italy, but this won't be where the majority are coming from.
"We want a Scottish club with a big focus on Scottish players. We feel that Scottish football is very strong nowadays and we want to highlight that.
"We want to build around the young players we have here and add some experience so that we have a nucleus good enough to take us up to the SPL.
"We are hoping that next week the embargo will be cancelled. We do have a very specific budget, although I cannot reveal exactly how much because we have still to decide how much we are going to spend on a technical level and on the players. We also have to restructure the club on a financial level as well.
"Without the support of the local people and the community, though, we won't be able to do much."
The full article contains 847 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
