Former Hearts flop Nerijus Barasa has revealed the club's disgraced ex-owner Vladimir Romanov ordered a Lithuanian clairvoyant woman to pick the team for six matches - and it resulted in defeats against the Old Firm and in an Edinburgh derby.
The defender joined the Jambos on loan from Romanov's club in his homeland, Kaunas, but his 16 months at the club were a disaster and he eventually retired through injury at the age of 29. Romanov, 75, is still wanted by Lithuanian authorities for allegations of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering and was wanted by Interpol, but took refuge in Russia and is now a citizen of the country living in his own personal K-19 nuclear submarine.
And Barasa has revealed how Romanov's personal psychic actually picked the team during Belarussian coach Eduard Malofeyev's ill-fated short six-game stint in charge of Hearts in 2006...where they lost against Celtic, Rangers, Hibs and drew with Dunfermline, Caley Thistle and Falkirk, scoring just three goals in the process. He said: "Vladimir Romanov was in charge of Hearts and he was just weird. The Scots had no idea what was happening.
"He brought in Eduard Malofeyev as manager and the first thing he did was make all the players perform somersaults. They are like, 'we are football players, why do we need to do this?' And Romanov had his own personal clairvoyant. A woman from Lithuania who went to training every day. The masseur was from the same place too. It was crazy - they installed this device and you stuck a finger in it and it showed a percentage of how ready you were to play.
"Romanov consulted with the clairvoyant and passed on her words to the manager and that's how the team was picked. She told him that a certain player didn't sleep well that night and shouldn't play, or the sun was in the wrong phase for another player. So the striker who scored every match was put on the bench because of this! His replacement would be decided by the clairvoyant too.
"Romanov was a total weirdo, but there was no negativity about him. He lives somewhere besides Moscow now, but can't be contacted. People laughed at him, but he used to say to them 'if you are so smart, why are you poor and I'm rich?' He took Hearts to second place and won a Scottish Cup. There were fans getting tattoos of him. But he began to lose it when he started listening to this clairvoyant all the time. She was getting paid £3,000 a week and had the latest BMW so she didn't really care."
And Barasa, in an interview in Russia, revealed he ripped up his contract after getting injured even though Romanov offered to give him a new one. He said: "When I signed for Hearts, they immediately gave me £50,000. I couldn't believe it. My last game came against Celtic and I suffered a bad injury when Jiri Jarosik landed on me.
"I still had 18 months left on my contract and Romanox asked if I was some kind of idiot because I wanted to rip up my contract immediately and not claim the rest of my money. I took the money I had made there and built my first hotel in Samara and I've not looked back. Scotland didn't fit my mentality. Everything is organised. Homes are bought for 80 years, on Fridays they all go to the pub and everything is regimented. In Russia, every day is a battle for survival. I like that.
"And the fans...they see everything. If, God forbid, you pulled out of a tackle for the ball, they will devour you. An inaccurate pass can be forgiven, but a lack of a fight...absolutely never."
