Hearts are in Baku for what should be a showpiece European tie this evening.
But unfortunately for supporters locked out of the clash with Dinamo Minsk the game is being overshadowed by matters closer to home as the club continue the search for a new manager. Where Hearts turn next is anyone’s guess but one thing’s for sure – the pressure is on the Tynecastle hierarchy to get this one right after blundering their way through the last few months. Fair play to CEO Andrew McKinlay for addressing punters after sacking Steven Naismith. But I’m afraid all his statement said was ‘don’t blame me’. And that’s not good enough.
McKinlay basically claimed Hearts were held to ransom by Naismith and his coaching staff when explaining the new deals they were handed 44 days before being given their P45s. He argued that because they were in the last year of their deal they’d be in danger of losing them to other clubs.
Well no disrespect to the coaches but if they think they can do better than Hearts then off you pop. My words to Naisy would have been ‘your first job in management is Heart of Midlothian – what an opportunity that is’.
Surely the sensible thing to do was to get through Europe, get through the first part of the season and then sit down at the turn of the year with five months of the season left to sort out contracts.
I found McKinlay’s statement very backhanded in the fact he was trying to justify every action that’s been taken over the past few months. I’d much rather he had just come out and admitted ‘we have got this wrong’.
He tried to defend the recruitment by saying he never heard people complaining about signings during the summer but again that was wide of the mark. It actually felt like it was aimed at this column. At no stage have I said Blair Spittal, Yan Dhanda or James Penrice were bad signings. Penrice has probably been the best player so far this season.
But I’ve been clear for a year now in saying Hearts needed to sign two out and out strikers to help Lawrence Shankland. And there’s no shying away from the fact they never did that. The chief executive said he would never interfere with what the manager is doing. But that’s his job. He’s basically the manager’s boss.
If Naisy had said they don’t need another striker – and I’d be astonished if that was the case – then someone in there should have realised he really did. Listen, Naisy had to go after eight defeats on the spin. But behind him there were a lot of others just as culpable.
Where Hearts turn now in the manager search will be really interesting. Especially with Brighton chief Tony Bloom’s analytics company heavily involved. I like Brighton’s blueprint. But I just think Scottish football is so unique that I’m not entirely convinced it would work in this situation. It would be a gamble. I’ve already said I’d go for Derek McInnes. He knows the league and has been a proven success at three different clubs now.
Listen, I’m not against Bloom’s supercomputer approach. It’s definitely worth looking into to see what might be out there. They need to look down every single avenue. And they have to do it quickly and effectively because we saw in Saturday’s last gasp draw with Ross County that nothing is going to change.
I like Liam Fox. Everything I hear about him is that the caretaker boss is a good coach. But what is he meant to do? The brass tacks of it is that Hearts have one guy who will score goals and if he’s not hitting the net between now and Christmas as regularly as last year then they are in big trouble. No matter who is in the dug out.
They need to get a new manager in to get a bounce, get some fresh ideas and that might just get them to Christmas time when they can go and get those strikers into the building that they are so desperately needing.
Hopefully by then Lawrence will be back to his best anyway. Seeing his name on the scoresheet on Saturday was brilliant and will be a huge weight off his shoulders. I’d not be surprised to see him go on a scoring spree just like last season now.
If he’s bang at it then Hearts have every chance of getting a result in Baku. They just need a win, no matter how it comes about. It’s just like Lawrence and that goal. Get one win under the belt and everything could suddenly be back on track for the new boss coming in.