There has been no official confirmation of this, and there is unlikely to be All parties signed a confidentiality agreement. This would include accepting any signings - like those recently of Samuel Camazzola and Ibrahim Tall - that Romanov made unilaterally.A source close to Burley denies he resigned, the implication being that he was sacked. Newcastle's Graeme Souness and Sunderland's Mick McCarthy were both at Tynecastle on Saturday as Hearts beat Dunfermline 2-0 to stay top of the league.Both were scouting, although that did not stop suggestions that Hearts and Newcastle are about to swap managers.More credible is the belief that Burley will re-emerge as a manager at Aston Villa or Birmingham. But he did not leave Tynecastle with anything agreed."There was nothing extraneous about his departure," a source said, also ruling out the possibility that Burley had been approached about taking over at Rangers.One thing is certain. Coincidentally, he will be in Edinburgh on Thursday to attend the funeral of Johnny Haynes, his former Fulham and England team-mate.Other candidates for the job may include Valdas Ivanauskas, a former head coach of the Romanov-owned Kaunas (Lithuania's champions), Nevio Scala, the veteran Italian coach, who was also interviewed for the Hearts job in the summer, and Anatoly Byshovets, a former Russian international who worked under Burley's predecessor, John Robertson.Conspiracy theorists were handed myriad titbits over the weekend to lob into the rumour pot. Shortly after Romanov had announced on Friday that he had secured 55 per cent of Hearts' shares and was bidding for the whole lot (in a deal that values the club at a potential bargain price of £4.4m), his differences with Burley became unsustainable.In a face-to-face meeting, ultimatums were issued by both sides Burley wanted guarantees of autonomy Romanov wanted a manager who would do what he was told. He is abroad on holiday and is not due to return until tomorrow.
In Burley's short reign, Romanov even bought players without his manager's knowledge, and on Friday failed to promise Burley that he would not do so again. If Burley conveys any of that to his mentor Robson in the coming days, it might curb the former England manager's enthusiasm. It's an attractive job and I left Mr Romanov on good terms."Whether any fresh approach to Robson has been made is not known. But Robson, 72, who had talks with Romanov in the summer about taking the Hearts job, said yesterday: "I didn't take the job before for personal reasons, but my circumstances are different now. Substitutes not used: Jones (gk), Hutchison, Braniff.Southampton (4-4-2): Niemi; Cranie, Svensson, Lundekvam, Higginbotham; Belmadi, Oakley (Wise, 68), Quashie, McCann; Fuller (Jones, 59), Walcott (Kosowski, 66). Substitutes not used: Smith (gk), Delap.Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).Booked: Millwall Ifil, Williams; Southampton Svensson, Fuller, Quashie.Sent off: Ifil (45).Man of the match: Walcott.Attendance: 10,759.. Sir Bobby Robson yesterday put himself in the frame for the managerial vacancy at Tynecastle after George Burley's sensational, unexpected departure from table-topping Hearts prompted dozens of theories but only one mutually agreed fact: Burley and Hearts' multimillionaire Lithuanian owner, Vladimir Romanov, had "irreconcilable differences." The root of those differences is that Romanov controls signings and interferes with the day-to-day running of the team. "I'll be writing a letter about that."Goals: Walcott (18) 0-1; Fuller (25) 0-2.Millwall (4-4-2): Marshall; Ifil, Lawrence, Williams, Vincent (Robinson, 29); Dunne, Morris (Asaba, 46), Wright, Livermore; Hayles, May.
A light has suddenly emerged in the Saints' darkness, and he is only 16 years old. His manager, Harry Redknapp, was understandably keen to arrest the construction of pedestals but Colin Lee, his Millwall counterpart, was unrestrained. "He's the best I've seen at that age," he said. Yet impressive as Walcott was, Redknapp will be acutely aware that his side's first victory in 10 Championship games was more directly the consequence of a series of Millwall gaffes.The Lions continually shot themselves in the foot.First there was Jamie Vincent's dire backpass after 18 minutes that handed Walcott his second goal in two senior starts.Seven minutes later there was Phil Ifil's needless lunge at Neil McCann, which earned him a yellow card and cost Millwall a free-kick from which an unmarked Ricardo Fuller headed Southampton's second.Ifil, on loan from Tottenham Hotspur, then collected an unfortunate second caution in first-half injury-time.He was late in challenging Danny Higginbotham, but the full-back jumped clear of his outstretched leg, and told the referee, Chris Foy, as much."The ref said he didn't care and told [Ifil] to get off," Lee said. By the time Theo Walcott hobbled off with cramp after 66 minutes at the New Den, Southampton fans were hailing not merely their second away win of the season, but also the second coming. Substitutes not used: Stack (gk), Obinna.Referee: G Salisbury (Lancashire).Booked: Stoke Hoefkens, Buxton, Bangoura. Reading Makin, Little.Man of the match: Gunnarsson.Attendance: 13,484.. Substitutes not used: De Goey (gk), Henry.Reading (4-4-2): Hahnemann; Makin (Sidwell, 53), Sonko, Ingimarsson, Shorey; Little (Oster, 73), Harper, Gunnarsson, Convey (Hunt, 90); Doyle, Kitson.
