When Romanov picked 'beaten dog' Rix - and the Hearts team
Heart of Midlothian were sitting top of the table and unbeaten in the first 10 matches of the 2005-06 season when manager George Burley was sacked.
It was the first shock move from Vladmir Romanov but it would not be the last in the Lithuanian's turbulent Tynecastle reign.
Claudio Ranieri and Bobby Robson were mentioned as possible replacements, while Lothar Matthaus and Ossie Ardiles are said to have expressed interest in a move to Edinburgh.
Instead, Romanov chose a coach who had last worked in the fourth tier of English football - and came with substantial personal baggage.
"I said if you make this appointment, all sorts of hell will break loose," remembers Charlie Mann, who worked as a spokesman for Romanov.
But his boss paid no heed and brought in Graham Rix, the former Arsenal captain, England international - and convicted sex offender.
"Ultimately, he wanted someone who was a lackey," journalist Mark Donaldson told the Romanov: Czar of Hearts podcast.
"He made a safe choice for his strategy," said former club director Sergejus Fedotovas. "It's like taking a beaten dog and expecting it to love you and behave."
In the wake of Burley's departure, chief executive Phil Anderton also exited, while chairman George Foulkes and finance director Stewart Fraser stepped down.
Romanov replaced Foulkes with his son Roman. He made the initial call to Rix, who hung up thinking it was his old pal Jim Duffy on the wind up.
At the second attempt, Rix was summoned to a London hotel and offered 10 times the salary he had been on at Oxford United.
"I had to take it," he said. "I didn't think it at the time, but Romanov obviously thought 'I can manipulate this boy'."
The reason for that was that Rix had been ostracised from football after serving half of a 12-month jail sentence in 1999 for indecent assault and unlawful sex with a 15-year-old girl.
"It's been a problem all my life [since being in prison]," he said. "I served my time and it wasn't a pleasant experience at all."
'He gave me the team on a bit of paper'
Results dropped off a little under Rix, with Celtic taking top spot in the league.
But Scotland midfielder Paul Hartley talks of "an outstanding coach", while striker Edgaras Jankauskas, once of Real Sociedad and Porto, said "the climate in the dressing room was good".
With Duffy installed as director of football, Rix was growing more comfortable in the role after the protests and lurid headlines that marked his arrival.
Then came the January transfer window.
"He [Romanov] goes 'we're signing him and him and him' and I didn't know one of them," Rix recalls. "At that point, I'm thinking 'I'm not going to pick them'."
But the new arrivals from all across Europe would get the game time the owner wanted in a bid to increase their market value.
Before a February trip to Tannadice, Rix was asked to show his boss the starting line-up.
"He looked at it and said 'nah'," explains Rix, now 67. "Then he went into his pocket and gave me the team [on a piece of paper].
"I went 'what if I don't play that team?' And he said 'you not manager'.
"'Duff' went 'who will be the manager?' He said 'you will'. And 'Duff' said 'what if I don't play it?' and he said 'you not manager'.
Rix complied. Andy Webster and Robbie Neilson were dropped in favour of Martin Petras and Ludek Straceny. Points were dropped in a 1-1 draw.
News leaked from a disgruntled dressing room and soon everyone knew who was picking the team.
Then Rix rebelled. Rangers were the visitors in mid-March and breathing down Hearts' neck in the race to be runners-up.
"We were five points in front with five games remaining, a draw wouldn't have been the end of the world," said Rix.
"I showed him [Romanov] the team on Thursday and he scrubbed out Julien Brellier and wrote in Bruno Aguilar.
"Brellier had played all season, not spectacular but he won his tackles. They can't all be artists, you need a few soldiers in there."
Rix decided not to alter his preferred team for such a big occasion. "I told my wife this will be my last game," he said before Hearts battled to 1-1 draw.
"I knew I was going to get the sack but I felt totally justified in what I'd done. Brellier got man of the match," added Rix, who soon got the news he was expecting.
"Roman just called me in and said it's not working out. We were second in the league and in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup!"
The first four episodes of Romanov: Czar of Hearts are available on BBC Sounds, with five more to be released weekly on Saturdays.
