Robbie Neilson on Vladimir Romaov's unusual Hearts reign - Mirsad Beslija, Martin Petras, and being treated by Mr Miyagi and golden sticks

The Tynecastle boss recalls some peripheral figures from his time as a player

Hearts boss Robbie Neilson was witness to many of the wonderful, chaotic and downright bizarre periods at Tynecastle during Vladimir Romanov’s ownership.

Then a right-back, he played under the likes of George Burley, Graham Rix, Valdas Ivanauskas and Eduard Malofeev.

As well as helping the club finish second and win the Scottish Cup, he experienced plenty of difficult and surreal moments.

Mirsad Beslija arrived at Tynecastle at the same time as Juho Makela and with a big reputation. Picture: SNS

None more so than when encountering the infamous Rima (or Rita) and her golden sticks, as well as someone the players dubbed ‘Pyjama Man’. Two individuals who used what can only be described as unusual methods when judging and healing the human body.

“On a Friday you had to go into the doctor’s room at Riccarton and you had to strip down into your underwear,” Neilson recalled to Scarves Around the Funnel podcast.

“Rita was this Russian woman who didn’t speak any English. You would stand there and she had this golden stick and would touch all your joints and would bark orders to this other Russian woman on the computer.

"They would come back and tell you how long you could play in a game. If she said you could play for 62 minutes you would come off after 62 minutes.”

Vladimir Romanov employed some unusual methods when Hearts owner. Picture: SNS

He added: “Pyjama Man could treat you without even touching you.

"You would lie there and Pyjama Man would do his Mr Miyagi stuff just over the top of you. He would tell you there was something wrong with you even though you didn’t feel anything wrong with you and he would tell you how he fixed it.

"There were a few stories, that was just the tip of the iceberg.”

Bosnian Bullet

Martin Petras was controversially selected ahead of Robbie Neilson in a clash against Dundee United. Picture: SNS

Neilson encountered plenty of players who came and went during his time at the club, especially between 2005 and 2009.

One of which was Mirsad Beslija, the club’s record signing from Genk during the notorious transfer window in January 2006. He was hyped up and billed as lightning quick, given the ‘Bosnian Bullet’ moniker. There were even rumours of interest from Sunderland and Dinamo Moscow at the time.

It was a deal which became protracted as Hearts disputed the transfer fee. He failed to live up to the hype or price tag, playing just 11 times before leaving in 2008.

“To be fair he was a lovely, lovely guy," Neilson said. “I remember before he was coming in everybody was talking about this is the fastest player in Europe. That’s what the club were saying, this guy is going to be phenomenal and he came in and we were like… still waiting for it, when’s he going to start running?

“It was a strange one that because he was built as this big thing. I think they paid something like £850,000 for him. He was meant to be this flying machine and basically wasn’t.

“Nice guy and a decent player but I get the feeling he didn’t really fancy it either. He came over, probably on a decent salary and thought ‘not really that interested’.”

That night in Dundee

While there were plenty of controversial moments during Romanov’s time at Hearts, one of the biggest ones arrived in the same season George Burley was sacked.

His replacement Graham Rix had notified the players ahead of a midweek trip to Dundee United that he wasn’t picking the team, he had orders from above.

One of those orders was for Neilson to be dropped for another January signing, Martin Petras, who arrived after leaving Sparta Prague.

The 38-time Slovakian international lasted until the 57th minute before being replaced by Neilson following a difficult evening which saw the Hearts fans chant the name of the current boss.

Neilson said: “It might have been the morning of the game and we were up at Riccarton and Rixy pulled all the boys together and basically said to us ‘look lads, I’m not picking the team. The owners told us who is going to be playing, we just need to get on with it’. It was all over the place from there.

“It was a difficult one for Rixy. We kind of knew stuff was happening in the background. There were loads of different things going on at that point. Rumours about in-game substitutions, who was making decisions, it was a crazy period.

“I actually felt really sorry for Martin. Martin Petras was a very, very good player. He went on to play in Serie B for a number of years. It was a difficult time for him to come in because so many players came in that January window they all got categorised together.

"Martin was actually a really nice guy and I’d speak to him regularly. He found it difficult to settle because of everything that was going on in the background, he wasn't playing as much as he wanted to.

“There were issues with his payments as well, problems in the background for a number of players coming in. Promised x amount of money and not getting paid, contracted in Kaunas and x amount paid in Scotland, stuff like that so it was a difficult period.”

You can listen to the full Robbie Neilson interview on Scarves Around the Funnel on iTunes or Spotify.