Hearts wait on Vlad's star turn

PROPOSALS aimed at revolutionising Hearts' scouting network in Britain and across Europe are awaiting ratification from majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov, the Evening News can reveal.

Academy director John Murray is behind the idea to appoint a head of scouting to organise the programme, which would focus on unearthing the best British talent for Hearts' first team whilst developing new contacts in England and on the continent.

Murray has formalised plans to that effect for the perusal of Romanov and his board of directors.

Presently, Hearts have no official scouting system and, in the recent past, Romanov has enlisted help from sport director Alex Koslovski and deputy chief executive Pedro Lopez to identify new players. He has also worked in this area himself, spotting Spanish midfielder Ruben Palazuelos amongst others.

The plan would see Hearts strategically enlist scouts across the UK with particular emphasis on expanding contacts in England. The new head of scouting would be employed to broaden the recruitment network and ensure the best talent was lured to Tynecastle.

Although Murray has helped identify promising youth talent in the form of Dumitru Copil, Branimir Kostadinov, Matej Rapnik and Ryan McGowan, he believes the senior scouting system is in dire need of attention. "We already have some good scouts in place but we want to enhance the whole system. The aim is to bring the best players to Hearts, both from England and abroad," said Stephen Frail, the club's interim manager. "We already have scouts in Edinburgh and throughout Scotland but we're looking beyond that.

"There are certain areas of Europe we are targeting as well as down south. John knows which areas the club needs to improve as he gets regular reports from the scouts we have.

"We already have a good youth policy which has produced several first-team players over the years. We want to build on that and widen our horizons."

Romanov is currently seeking to reduce Hearts' £12.49million wage bill, therefore any new players can expect a lower basic wage than previous signings which would be augmented by performance-related bonuses.

Club officials were today awaiting the outcome of the SFA's general purposes committee meeting at Hampden Park, at which the comments of Tynecastle chairman Roman Romanov were to be discussed.

Hearts will be asked to explain Romanov Jnr's comments and could incur a fine after he claimed the SPL is "fixed" in favour of the Old Firm and that matches are "screwed" by referees.

"We are aware there's a regular meeting today at the SFA and we will await its outcome," said Campbell Ogilvie, Hearts' managing director.

Hearts also confirmed that they will intervene to avert another SFA investigation into the Andy Webster transfer saga.

They have pledged to compensate Arbroath with £26,250 for the defender, who was ordered to pay £150,000 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for opting out of his Hearts contract to join Wigan in 2006. Wigan only paid the amount on Webster's behalf earlier this month and Arbroath are due 17.5 per cent because of a sell-on clause inserted when the player moved to Tynecastle in 2001.

Arbroath claim to have received no correspondence from Hearts but club officials are promising the matter will be dealt with.

Meanwhile, Audrius Ksanavicius will miss Saturday's match with Inverness due to chicken pox. Christian Nade should be fit despite a cheekbone injury sustained against St Mirren.

• BRUNO AGUIAR returned from a year-long injury absence yesterday as Hearts reserves lost 3-1 to Dundee United. Sean Mackle scored the consolation goal.