Tony Bloom’s Starlizard algorithm WON’T pick Hearts‘ new manager for them, but will rank the candidates to inform the board’s decision.
Tynecastle CEO Andrew McKinlay has set out how the recruitment process to identify Steven Naismith‘s successor will work. While he is remaining tight-lipped over the individuals and company involved, it can be taken as read that Brighton owner Bloom, who is in talks over £10million investment into the Jambos, is allowing the capital club access to the tech that’s seen Brighton repeatedly nail their player and manager recruitment and reap the financial rewards to the tune of hundreds of millions.
But fans expecting Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics to crunch the numbers and spit out the perfect boss for the Hearts board to appoint have been warned that’s not how it’s going to work. Brighton’s approach has been to identify names that would fly under the radar of most English Premier League clubs, and that could well be replicated in Gorgie.
But McKinlay has stressed that they won’t be ignoring applications already made – some several weeks ago while Naismith was still in the hot seat – or names on their own list. Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes has been widely hailed as an ideal fit, and suitability budget etc will all be taken into account, with the Starlizard rankings helping inform any decision rather than making it for McKinlay and co.
“Where we are now is that we’ve had our own lists and we’re also working with an analytics company,” he said. “I can’t really say too much about who that company is, there has been a lot of press reporting recently but for commercial confidentiality reasons I can’t go into too much detail, but we are working with an analytics company.
“Now, what does that mean? Does it just mean that they will tell us who we should have as the manager? No, it doesn’t mean that. What it means is that they will be part of the process and they will have some views on some individuals and we will also feed them any individuals we think might be right and any applications we might have, and we’ve had a significant amount in the last 48 hours.
“In fact, we’ve had a significant amount in the weeks previous to that, such is the nature of football. They’ll all be fed into that analytics and that will give us an idea of a ranking of managers.
“But that ranking is just based on analytics, you then have to take that and look at those individuals; are they within our ability to get them, are they in current roles or not, there are various factors – will they fit into our culture, what style of football will they play, you can go on and on, and the analytics won’t give you all those answers.
“You have to do a lot of your own work and that’s the same as when it comes to recruiting players through analytics as well. The analytics will be a very important part of the process.”
Despite Bloom’s position at Brighton, McKinlay categorically ruled out an official link up with the English Premier League outfit, or any other club for that matter. Further down the line, the Seagulls owner may look to purchase a minority shareholding in the Tynecastle club. But McKinlay has assured fans that the Jambos will never become a feeder club to anyone, and that risking their eligibility for Europe by joining a multi-club stable would be “ludicrous.”
He explained: “I’ve made comments in the past about my views on multi-club ownership, and not being hugely supportive of them; I want to be clear that when I was talking about that, I was talking in the context of feeder clubs. I do not want Scotland to become a feeder league. I, and the Board and FOH’s firm position is that we will not become a feeder club for any club elsewhere. We will not have a formal link with any other football club.
“Anything that we do would be done on the basis of there may be an individual involved, or they may not be, that has involvement with other football clubs but there will be no links between those clubs. A thing we’re very conscious of is that if you do have links with other clubs then that could prejudice your ability to play European football and we will never put that in jeopardy. That would just be a ludicrous thing for us to do and we will not do it.”