Can Hearts afford to play Russian roulette after their humiliation at Celtic?

"Celtic offended us and I would like it to be avenged." These were the sentiments expressed by Anatoly Korobochka, self-styled Director of Football or head coach (take your pick) of Hearts following his team's hammering by the champions on Saturday.

'The only thing that really surprises me though is that Hearts have any supporters left'

What he didn't say was that he'll be hoping his Russian compatriots from Spartak Moscow will do the avenging in tonight's return leg Champions League qualifier. But it's the kind of sentiment you would expect to hear these days from Tynecastle. They'll be hoping that someone else can do what they were incapable of doing themselves.

It really shows the mentality of those allegedly in charge of Heart of Midlothian FC. The comments will, of course, have been translated as two out of the three people currently comprising their management team don't speak English. I say allegedly in charge because Korobochka, coach Stephen Frail and Angel Chervenkov (also team coach it seems) are all only really passing on the thoughts of chairman Roman Romanov, through translators, onto the park.

You can't help but feel sorry for Frail. His accomplices don't know what they're talking about, and Frail wouldn't know what they were talking about either even if he could understand what they're saying - if you see what I mean.

It's not even in his interests for Celtic to fail to reach the group stages of the Champions League, because the only way the club he works for might reach any kind of European stage is for Scottish clubs to be ranked highly enough by UEFA for them to have a sniff of anything of the sort outside of their summer holidays.