UGANDAN Football Federation officials have pledged to resist any approach from Hearts for head coach Laszlo Csaba and will demand £120,000 compensation from Vladimir Romanov if he wants the Hungarian.
Csaba yesterday claimed to have held discussions with Romanov regarding the managerial vacancy at Tynecastle but the majority shareholder will conduct at least one more interview next week before deciding on an appointment.
Richard Barigye, v
ice president of the Ugandan Federation, stressed that there has been no official contact from Hearts over Csaba. Barigye and his fellow board members are reluctant to lose their national coach and will press for compensation should he intimate a desire to leave. His £48,000-a-year contract runs until the end of 2010.
"We still want him here, we want him in charge for the African Cup of Nations and for the World Cup qualifiers," said Barigye. "If we have interest and if he wants to leave then we have sit down with him, but we are still very interested in his services.
"Csaba has a contract and if he tells us he wants to leave then we will want the value of the contract. We pay him about $8000 a month (£4000) and then there is free housing and other things like medical and school fees to be taken into consideration."
Csaba is the latest in a series of coaches to hold discussions with Romanov after Mark McGhee, Vladimir Weiss and Jurgen Rober all failed to reach agreement with the Russian businessman.
Hearts yesterday announced a two-year contract extension for Portuguese defender Jose Goncalves, who is beginning a season-long loan with Nuremberg. Hearts opted to extend the player's agreement before agreeing the loan deal, which guarantees the German second division club first option to sign Goncalves in a year's time for a pre-arranged fee.
"Nuremberg, for me, is a new motivation and a new goal," said Goncalves, who speaks fluent German as well as five other languages. "It is a big club in Germany and I know that I must play well here. Competition (for places] is always good."
Meanwhile, former Manchester United midfielder Richie Jones has opted against a move to Tynecastle and has instead joined Hartlepool. The Evening News revealed earlier this week that Jones underwent a medical at Riccarton but last night he completed a deal to sign for the English League One side.
The full article contains 412 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
