Hearts manager Daniel Stendel will hold crunch talks on his future with chairman Ann Budge if, as expected, the club is relegated in the days to come.
The German arrived to replace Craig Levein in December but despite a January recruitment drive has struggled to turn around the Jambos' abject form.
With countryman Jorg Sievers brought in as his assistant and Englishman Dale Tonge also hired in a first-team coaching role there is much to mull over for the Tynecastle board.
Stendel returned to his homeland as the coronavirus hit and has been working without salary in an attempt to help the Gorgie club survive the financial pain that has followed in the virus' destructive path.
And despite the boss enjoying his time in Scotland so far, the former Barnsley manager's agent has admitted there are still issues to discuss.
Timo Rodewald, Stendel's agent, told the Edinburgh Evening News: “Daniel is happy at Hearts, he likes Edinburgh and Scotland. He is feeling comfortable in Edinburgh and now has to wait and see what happens. It is not like he is running away to get out of Scotland.
“I personally think it would not be fair to punish one team and force them to relegate kind of 'in the middle of the season' – whether it was Hearts or any other team.
“If Hearts go down, Daniel's future will need to be discussed. So far we haven’t talked about it. He has not decided on anything at this moment.”
The Jambos currently sit bottom of the Premiership with eight games still to play.
They are four points adrift of Hamilton in 11th place but it looks increasingly unlikely the season can continue.
