Stephen Frail and Anatoly Korobochka took interim control in March

Bulgarian Angel Cerenkov, who recently ended six months in charge of Kaunas, joins Hearts as assistant coach with responsibility for the reserves.

The appointments follow a meeting with majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov.

Romanov told the club website: "We will be working with the same team as it is now, plus Angel Cerenkov."

Interview: Hearts coach Stephen Frail

Interview: Hearts player Robbie Neilson

Speculation had mounted during the summer that Romanov could change manager for the eighth time since taking over the club in summer 2005.

But Korobochka and Frail have done enough during pre-season to convince Romanov that they should remain in charge.

I wish we could only have to be in charge of football questions Hearts majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov

The 52-year-old Korobochka, who was a midfielder with CSKA Moscow, was already the club's sporting director when he stepped in as interim boss after Valdas Ivanauskas took sick leave in March.

Asked what he thought of the performance of the Russian and Frail, Romanov said: "On a scale of one to five, I would probably say three."

But he thought that the departure of John McGlynn, who became Raith Rovers manager, had left the coaching staff stretched.

"There will be an assistant - Angel Cerenkov, the Bulgarian," said Romanov.

"He will be in charge of the reserve team."

Cerenkov becomes the fourth former Kaunas coach to join Hearts from the club sponsored by Romanov's bank, following in the footsteps of Ivanauskas, Egenijus Riabovas and Eduard Malofeev.

Hearts were last season struck by a split in the dressing-room that led to the departure of captain Steven Pressley and fellow Scotland international Paul Hartley to Celtic.

And Romanov is hopeful that Korobochka and Frail could concentrate on challenging the champions and runners-up Rangers.

MY SPORT: DEBATE In terms of next season, I'm not sure I saw anyone or any tactical change that makes us any different to the sorry state of a footballing side we were second half of last season sideshowstevie

"I wish we could only have to be in charge of football questions," he said.

"We have to deal with problems when players are being taken away and these are not direct football issues.

"Anatoly had to deal with these issues."

There were reports of some player grumbles during Hearts' pre-season training camp about the involvement of former interim coach Eduard Malofeev.

However, Romanov stressed that Molofeev would return to his role as an advisor and would not be directly involved in the campaign ahead.

Asked what his ambitions were for the season, Romanov said: "It's pointless to say that we want to be champions, because of course we do.

"But our main target is to create a system in the club where we are a big happy family and looking optimistically to the future."

However, Romanov was "very, very disappointed" that his side had not supplied a more entertaining spectacle in Saturday's 3-1 defeat by Barcelona at Murrayfield.