Hearts manager Neil Critchley is to data analysis what VAR is to customer satisfaction so far as Scottish football is concerned.
I asked here last week, in advance of the Tynecastle side’s Europa Conference League tie against the might of Moldova’s Petrocub in Edinburgh, if there were allowable concerns over Critchley being the right fit for a club of his employers’ size. The league game with St Johnstone at Tynecastle on Sunday will need to be won by the league’s bottom club or else Neil will have provided an answer to that question which is negative.
The players look like they’re not having him. The crowd, commendably large on a regular basis in spite of an awful season going from worse to even worse, isn’t having him. The question is, what analytics came up with his name in the first place? A former youth coach at Liverpool sacked by every club he has subsequently managed.
Bottom of the league table here, and now having defaced Hearts‘ 100th European tie by recording their worst-ever result at that level. Four wins from 14 matches is Critchley’s record so far. Need I go on?
You could have put names into a tombola and come up with better than the Hearts fans have had to endure under Neil’s noxious time at the helm. A failure to get all three points this and Ann Budge, the victim of vile chanting herself at the end of the embarrassment on Thursday night, might be forced into having a word. When your home games become mass protests then decisive steps have to be taken.
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