Wage cut threatens Kingston's stay with Hearts

Ghana midfielder Laryea Kingston's future with Scottish side is hanging in the balance after the club owner ordered the coach to halve the wage bill.

Last week saw majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov paid a surprise visit to Edinburgh, during which he and manager Jim Jefferies discussed their plans for the future.

The latter confirmed this morning he was under orders to reduce the wage bill after the controversial Romanov warned he would no longer tolerate "mercenaries" at Tynecastle.

Kingston is the club's best player and highest earner but a fall-out with previous coach Csaba Laszlo cast doubt over Kingston's future.

The Ghanaian has improved since Jefferies took over but the new coach claims he could bring success to Hearts, even if he is forced to halve the wage bill by Vladimir Romanov.

Romanov's directive casts further doubt on the futures of captain Michael Stewart, midfielder Kingston and striker Christian Nade, all of whom are out of contract at the end of the season and all of whom are thought to be among the biggest earners at the club.

Defender Jose Goncalves has already rejected a new deal and is set to quit Tynecastle this summer.

Jefferies said: "The ones who are out of contract, we can sit down in a couple of weeks and look at the situation and ask them what they're thinking.

"And if you have to cut the wage bill then you might not be able to afford them because they might get a better offer elsewhere."

The vastly experienced Jefferies insists he has no problem with the Lithuania-based businessman's vision, claiming he had operated under far tighter constraints in the past.

"I've been in this game along enough," said the 59-year-old former Kilmarnock and Bradford boss.

"I keep going to chairmen and they keep telling me to cut wage bills!

"So that's not a problem - this one's probably a little bit easier.

"Maybe that's one of the reasons I'm here, so that we can get the wage bill down and still bring in players and build a side that make us successful."

He added: "The wage bill will still be a good wage bill.

"Sometimes, you go to other clubs and you wonder how you're going to do it.

"But, in this case, even cutting the wage bill down will still be sufficient.

"That's the good thing from my point of view.

"Even if I halve the wage bill here, it would still be a decent wage bill to expect the team to do extremely well."

Jefferies believes Romanov is as committed as ever to Hearts and insisted he had yet to suffer the kind of direct interference that irked his many predecessors.