Darryl Broadfoot on Monday: Csabla Laszlo is a beacon of hope for a Hearts team tormented by their owner in absentia.

Csabla Laszlo is a beacon of hope for a Hearts team tormented by their owner in absentia. This week, emboldened by four successive league wins, the club took the unprecedented step of co-operating with the media, via a series of carefully controlled interviews, affectionately written by a freelance with a well-known maroon bent.

Presumably, Vladimir Romanov was kept in the loop, since he was the instigator of the limited co-operation' policy in the first place. To summarise, the club are in safe administrative hands under Campbell Ogilvie, the youth development structure is yielding an encouraging crop and Laszlo has wasted no time in weeding out the malingerers.

And then Romanov forgot to pay the players' wages. The man can't even abide a week's worth of positive PR. The timing of the funds transfer "blip" could not have been any worse: Rangers arrived at Tynecastle to provide the greatest test yet of Hearts' mini-revival, achieved with a sequence of odd-goal wins against bottom-six clubs.

Hearts stood up to the examination, convincingly at that, but no thanks to the owner who has sacked employees for much more trivial matters than not paying the workers on time in the lead-up to Christmas in times of credit crunch.

Instead, Saturday's 2-1 win against Rangers was a personal triumph for Laszlo, a likeable Hungarian waffler whose rambling orations confound a tactical and instructional precision. Success has been founded on a conservative 4-2-3-1 template that places emphasis on reliability, industry and team-work; hitherto alien concepts for a team in a constant state of upheaval from the dressing room, manager's office and the boardroom.

It has been noticeable that Hearts' recent success has been achieved with a stability of selection and, perhaps coincidentally, only the merest hint of Lithuanian influence. On Saturday, Marius Zaliukas was the only Lithuanian in the starting line-up. It's not so much a xenophobic observation as a hint that Romanov might trust Laszlo sufficiently to let him get on with the job without the once customary Friday night fax from Kaunas.

Laszlo is a breath of fresh - and occasionally hot - air. He has enjoyed modest success with Borussia Moenchengladbach, Ferencvaros and Uganda and was deemed to have been little more than another eccentric patsy when he was paraded as Stephen Frail's permanent replacement last season.

He has restored respectability to a team that had become a laughing stock by imposing a new players' code of conduct that has stopped the oversized squad treating Riccarton as a holiday camp.

"At one stage in pre-season, in Germany, I came into the dressing room and saw people without any direction," he said of his lamentable first impressions. "I asked, What do you do, my friends? Get up in the sunshine, take your big car to training, work for two hours, have a massage, speak to a journalist and then go and see your girlfriend.

It is a very nice life.' "I told them they could enjoy this for maybe 15 years, if they are good. I said that if they did as they were doing, they would enjoy two days and I would push them out to look for a new job."

If only Romanov indulged in such straight talking self-assessment, instead of blaming everyone else for his failure to fulfil his initial objectives. Laszlo's message appears to have hit home. Hearts, aside from the ongoing financial uncertainties, is a happy working environment again. Laszlo's man-management is a joy to behold. Take Saturday. Laryea Kingston, who missed five club games with a thigh injury but represented Ghana on international duty, signalled he had had enough after 30 minutes. Laszlo thought otherwise. He waved him back on to the field contemptuously and Kingston was all the better for the chiding.

Christian Nade is hardly a habitual goalscorer but he has become a formidable focal point of Hearts' attack. Bruno Aguiar, at present, might just be the on-form central midfielder in the country. Christophe Berra, Lee Wallace and Andrew Driver have all improved under Laszlo. For the first time since George Burley's opening 12 weeks of the 2005-06 season, there is genuine cause for optimism.

Laszlo celebrated Saturday's victory with an infectious enthusiasm and, it seemed, an air guitar. He is a popular character among the players but, most importantly, has earned their respect, too. If Walter Smith is the mellowing grandfather of Scottish football, Laszlo is a cool, long-lost Hungarian uncle.

He is a nightmare for those in the business of short soundbites. Setanta Sports cut him off mid-sentence, while for radio interviewers a simple question on his satisfaction with three points is usually answered with a wandering life lesson. Yet he is different: approachable, fun, thoughtful and the kind of guy you want to see succeed.

Which is where Romanov comes in. It would be a terrible waste if Laszlo is not allowed to carry out his repair work without the owner inviting more humiliation on his club by failing to keep his end of the bargain. The players have shown loyalty to Laszlo by not bleating about their delayed wages but Romanov should mistake this unity for naivete. The supposed £51m stadium redevelopment remains on hold, according to Edinburgh City Council, because the club have yet to forward essential design information.

Bricks and mortar don't bother the fans but destroying Laszlo's building blocks might be the final straw. At last, Hearts have a manager prepared to fight their corner against the enemy from within.