LORD Foulkes, the former Hearts chairman, has backed the Tynecastle club to maintain their strong start to the season and vie for the Ladbrokes Premiership title thanks to their new-found off-field stability.

The Labour peer was on the board of the Edinburgh club back at the beginning of the 2005/06 campaign when they went 12 league games undefeated to raise hopes of winning their first Scottish crown in 46 years.

However, Vladimir Romanov, their enigmatic Lithuanian owner, sacked manager George Burley after he had gone 10 games undefeated, and they ended up, after spells with John McGlynn, Graham Rix and Valdas Ivanauskas in charge, finishing 17 points behind winners Celtic.

Lord Foulkes resigned shortly after Burley was jettisoned and just before chief executive Phil Anderton lost his job due to his exasperation at the increasingly erratic and despotic leadership of Romanov.

Yet, he still attends Hearts matches religiously and is optimistic that Craig Levein’s men, who have won their first five games and opened up a five point lead at the top of the Premiership table, will be able to sustain their challenge this time around.

“I am so hopeful, not confident as that would be a bit arrogant, that Hearts can win the league this year I have put a bet on it and I am not usually a betting man,” he said. “I only put on £10 at 200-1. Perhaps I should have bet more.”

Lord Foulkes believes the fact that manager Levein has the complete backing of the Hearts board, who are led by chairwoman and majority shareholder Ann Budge, will prove important in the coming months.

“That is the big difference,” he said. “Back in 2005 we had the mercurial presence of Vladimir Romanov. George Burley was a brilliant manager, but Vladimir didn’t like him getting the credit for the success the team was enjoying.

“Dysfunctional is how to describe it. You never knew where you were. He used to tell the manager what to do, what team to put on the field, when to make substitutes. He had a list of all the players’ names and he used to give them points out of 10.

“He didn’t like Julien Brellier for some reason. He once said to me ‘Brellier, I give him only five, why does the manager put him on the field?’ I told him ‘because he’s a brilliant player’. But he thought he knew better than the manager.

“Romanov arrived with all these people who had been in submarines with him, a woman with a magic wand to work miracles with injured players, all sorts of strange individuals.

“My regret was I didn’t resign when he sacked George Burley. I left a week later when he was about to sack the chief executive, Phil Anderton. To be fair to him, he put a lot of money in. But I was glad to get away from him. It was a load off my shoulders. I started to sleep at night. It was a rollercoaster time.”

Romanov’s turbulent eight year reign at Hearts ended in 2013 when the club entered administration with debts of £25 million and he is still being investigated in Lithuania over charges of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.

However, leading Scottish businesswoman Ann Budge and supporters group the Foundation of Hearts have since united to get the Tynecastle club on a firm financial footing.

“The atmosphere at Hearts now is terrific,” said Lord Foulkes. “Ann is very well respected and provides a stability. Everyone is pulling together. Hearts is always a positive club. But this season that is especially true.

“The new stand at Tynecastle is, after one or two hiccups in its development, there now and doing well. The hospitality is packed. To take 3,000 supporters to Motherwell was an astonishing thing.

“The Foundation of Hearts is a phenomenon. To have 8,000 people, of whom I am one, contributing every month to support the club on top of seasons tickets shows a depth of commit that doesn’t exist anywhere else. The way the club has developed is remarkable.”

Lord Foulkes also feels Hearts may benefit from the difficulties their main rivals are experiencing - as Leicester City did when the King Power Stadium club stunned football and won the Premier League in England back in 2016.

“Everything needs to go in Hearts’ favour for us to win the league,” he said. “We need other clubs to trip up a bit and not be their usual powerful self. But that’s beginning to happen.

“Celtic have had internal problems between the manager and board and with certain players. Aberdeen have got off to a very poor start.

“Our great rivals Hibs have got a good manager and great potential, but they haven’t got off to a good start. Rangers are a danger because they are picking up. But not as much as they had hoped. All the other clubs have got issues which they need to deal with which might help us.

“People have said to me ‘you’re absolutely mad, there’s no way Hearts are going to win the league’. I have said: ‘Well, that’s what they said about Leicester’. It is an object lesson in how to surprise people.”

Burley had some outstanding players to choose from, including Scotland internationalists Paul Hartley, Craig Gordon, Robbie Neilson, Steven Pressley and Andy Webster as well as foreign players like Roman Bednar, Brellier, Saulius Mikoliunas and Rudi Skacel, at Hearts 13 years ago.

Yet, Lord Foulkes is confident that Levein and his assistant Austin MacPhee have unearthed some gems in the transfer market and have the strength in depth to stay ahead of the likes of Aberdeen, Celtic, Hibernian and Rangers.

“We are doing well on the field,” he said. “We had a superb team in 2005. But this team is brilliant too. Some of the players Craig, with some help from Austin MacPhee, has brought in are fantastic. The fact that many have been unearthed from the lower leagues is very impressive.

“Craig has been masterful in how he has handled it. So has Austin. He is a very, very clever young man. Craig told me one day ‘he keeps me on my toes’. He needs someone to do that. It is a good combination.

“Their signings have been brilliant. Peter Haring in the midfield has been excellent. Jimmy Dunne has stepped in for Christophe Berra and done well. Oli Lee has got his own song. The fans are trying to work out a song for Uche Ikpeazu. Steven Naismith is just flying. It has just been remarkable. They have already become heroes.”