Eduard Malofeev: The story of the infamous interim spell - part 3

“When you were young it was keep your head down and when you were spoken to just listen.”

Christophe Berra, just 21 at the time, was one of only three players to start all six of Eduard Malofeev's games in charge. Andrius Velicka and Craig Gordon the others. He even captained the side for the draw with Falkirk. One of three players to start with the armband during that spell. Steven Pressley and Paul Hartley the others.

“There was a lot of chopping and changing, uncertainty,” Berra told Hearts Standard. “For me it was my first experience of having a manager who didn’t speak any English. It was totally different, a different culture of doing things. His approach was very regimented. An older man. It’s harder when you are a foreigner, even a player, to build that connection straight away because of the language barrier, culture, connecting with people."

A trip to the Highlands to face Inverness CT was Malofeev's last stand. The four changes from the loss at home to Rangers took it to 20 across the six games. 

Vladimir Romanov had travelled north, joined by the returning Valdas Ivanauskas who was set to return to take charge following the match. Meanwhile, Stevie Frail had stepped into the dugout, taking the place of John McGlynn who had found an escape route, taking over at Raith Rovers at the start of the week.

The club's owner wouldn't see the full-time whistle, leaving the game early. It was another match where the Hearts supporters made their feelings clear, issuing their support to Pressley. It was an instantly forgettable encounter. Despite the return of Pressley, Takis Fyssas and Robbie Neilson to the starting line-up they could only draw 0-0. Not quite the on-field ending to match what went on before. Malofeev would depart but still have involvement, acting as a consultant to Ivanauskas.

Michael Stewart, returning to Hearts in 2007, reckoned the Lithuanian players were either petrified or in awe of him. Velicka provided a more positive impression of the Russian coach having been managed by him in Lithuania.

“I knew him very well because he was coaching me at Kaunas,” he said. "For me it was a little bit strange at first. After one, two months we were playing good football under him in Lithuania. In Scotland it is different mentalities. It was hard for Scottish players to understand him.

“That was key why, not just Scottish players, weren’t really happy with him. But I understand him very well but mentality was very different compared to Scottish football and Malofeev. It says something that he was not a bad coach but it is all about mentality and the language barrier.”

Despite Ivanauskas’ return, Hearts drew with St Mirren before tasting victory in a 4-1 home success over Motherwell, the team's first success after going nine without a win. His return was, however, short lived and Anatoly Korobochka would see Hearts over the line in fourth.

“I felt sorry for Valdas because he was getting tarred with the brush of being Romanov’s man from Lithuania,” Jamie MacDonald said. “He was a lovely man and he knew his stuff. He had a good career himself. Even before he got the job he would help with the goalkeepers

“Then it was the proper merry-go-round of managers. Coincided with even more players coming in, players who weren’t good enough for the first-team. We just had an over inflated squad and it is hard to keep people happy. It was a very strange place to be about.”

While it was the end of the line for Ivanauskas at Hearts, remarkably it wasn’t the case for Malofeev. On June 27, 34 players, two physiotherapists, two masseurs, three ground staff and kit men, one sports scientist, one marketing manager, one fitness coach and three coaches arrived at Edinburgh airport bound for an Austrian training camp.

One of those coaches? Eduard Malofeev.

“Just for pre-season, to try and help them and strengthen them, I asked Eduard Malofeev to come and work here as well,” Romanov explained. “He’s got very good experience which I think is good for us to try and use.”

Having been across the capital the season previous, Stewart was well aware of the goings on at Tynecastle. But only until he was in that environment could he understand the true sense of it all.

“It is a small world, you speak to folk,” he said. “You are fully aware of how horrific the results are. When I came back there were a group of really, really good players. Boys like Pinilla, these boys were proper players. The problem was they weren’t motivated because it was such a shambles. They needed somebody to pull it together to get them motivated to perform.

“It was comical. I was aware of it but hadn’t had first-hand experience. You are thinking to yourself something this mental cannae actually happen. You are just thinking logically. After two or three days and you cannae move because your body is wrecked because this guy has got you doing all sorts of stupid things.

“When I try to tell folk about it, it’s like Soccer AM. That was a total pisstake but that’s what he had us doing in pre-season! Relay races, wheelbarrow races, star jumps and forward rolls. It was just embarrassing.

“They said he’d just sit and drink vodka. Any time you saw him he was sculling vodka. There was no input about football. It was run about like the 1950s. Jump, run, roll. There was no football. He never spoke anything about football. We’d play handball every day for warm-up. It was as if the handball game was more important than football. It was just mental.”

He added: “There was a lot of anger from the guys who were still there.”

On 5 July 2007, The Scotsman reported on Hearts trying to sign Argentine duo Fernando Screpis and Damian Gimenez. Tucked into that report was the paragraph: “Several players have complained at Malofeev’s influence and training methods after the veteran was placed in charge of Hearts’ pre-season preparations. 

Stewart had been at Hibs when a delegation of players spoke to then chairman Rod Petrie about manager John Collins. Stewart remembered witnessing something similar going down that summer.

“If I am not mistaken a crowd of boys went to speak to Anatoly [Korobochka],” he said. “You got the sense he would actually listen and he knew when something was total nonsense. All the stuff with John Collins hadn’t happened and then this. ‘What the hell’s going on here?’

“This guy cannae come back and have any involvement. He didn’t hang about much longer and then he disappeared.”

After 12 months, a period which saw the team go from competing for a place in the Champions League to preparing for what would be the worst league season in 25 seasons, Malofeev would vanish. His next job was back in Lithuania but not at Kaunas. Managerial spells in Russia and Belarus would follow. In 2009 he led Dynamo St Petersburg to the West Zone title of the Russian third tier and promotion to the second division, winning manager of the year in the process. 

Now 81, he is still regarded as one of the greatest coaches of his generation in Eastern Europe. In Scotland, Malofeev will be remembered for his rants, his questionable tactics and outdated training sessions. And, of course, the most chaotic, dysfunctional and infamous interim spell in Heart of Midlothian history.