After making late payments to the first team squad for the third month in a row, 4th place Hearts Of Midlothian face Scottish Premier League censure if they fail to pay clean up their arrears by mid-January. Hearts chairman Vladimir Romanov once famously compared soccer scribes to “Bolsheviks in Soviet times who wanted to shoot a peasant only because he planted the seeds following his own way, and not their instructions.”  On Friday, via the club’s website, Romanov proved once again that’s he remains all too willing to wage rhetorical war with the Fourth Estate (excerpts from The Guardian) :

“As soon as Hearts moved closer to the third spot the monkeys start to squeal, lie and create conspiracy plots. I thought I had expressed myself clearly – I am selling the club and I am not going to give any more money away.

“It is pointless to support showbusiness, not football. Hearts is now living out of its own budget. Everyone knew, including players, media and SPL, that the wages are going to be paid as soon as the money was received for Eggert Jonsson, who was sold last year.

“But media still tried to create conspiracy plots about the team and managed to get a prompt and unwise decision from the SPL meeting, which the club asked it to postpone until next week in order to get opportunity to pay the wages. As such I have not cheated anyone.

“The monkeys tricked the SPL, fans and themselves and showed who is in charge of the football mafia.”