THESE have been a turbulent few days at Heart of Midlothian Football Club, what with their manager, Csaba Laszlo, appearing to have had his player signing plans vetoed by the club owner and several reports of him receiving the support of players after he had asked them if they still wanted him as boss.
So, it was hardly any surprise when, on Friday afternoon, the website of The Scotsman went so far as to say that Laszlo had gone, with a report that read: “It is understood Hearts manager Csaba Laszlo has left the Tynecastle club. The club has yet to make an official statement.
“Laszlo was linked this morning to a move to German club, Hannover, in newspaper reports this morning.
“This week the Ukranian was also informed by the Hearts board that his transfer budget had been cut and that he would have to increasingly rely on players coming through the club’s youth development set-up.”
A few moments later, there then came the apology: “At 4pm this afternoon scotsman.com briefly published an article which erroneously suggested that Csaba Laszlo was to leave his position as Hearts manager. This is not the case and scotsman.com apologises for any confusion this report may have caused.”
And confusion there was, with the Hearts media officer said to have been inundated with enquiries during the few minutes when the incorrect story was still live. In particular, rumours quickly swept along the boundary ropes at the Scotland v Australia cricket match taking place that day in Edinburgh and being reported by various sports hacks.
Curiously, at the time of the report going up, Laszlo was giving an interview to Stuart Bathgate of The Scotsman and Moira Gordon and Colleen Paterson of sister titles, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News.
