Steven Naismith is adamant he could have turned things around at Hearts and admits the axe fell earlier than he expected.
The 38-year-old was sacked at Tynecastle after a run of eight consecutive defeats having guided the Gorgie club to third place in the Scottish Premiership the previous season.
Naismith has since been replaced by Neil Critchley in the hot-seat and on his sacking, which came after defeat to St Mirren, the former Scotland striker told The Warm-Up, presented by William Hill: “I don’t think you know, or I certainly didn’t know. I understand that you look at results and you go ‘right if we can get a result here, if we don’t that builds the pressure’.
“Inside I was probably thinking you’ll get to the international break because it was three games there and they were probably games that you’re more likely to look at and go right – we should win. Ross County at home, the European game and then a big one is going to be Aberdeen.
“But even after the St Mirren game when we get beat 2-1, I’m sitting there really still believing that we can turn this around and I can make this better. And then when you have the phone call the next day that is what it is but I don’t think there’s a structure or a set way for it to happen or how it comes, the conversation’s had and I think if you’re honest it’s the best way you can go about it all.
“It’s disappointing, there’s a bit of frustration there because you do believe, we worked so hard over the previous year to bring success at the start which we managed to do and then the reward of that is European football, you get to develop the squad a bit. I thought we did that.
“Nobody complained about the recruitment over the summer. But then, as a young manager, you signed players and you think at the start of a season ‘brilliant, we’ve got this option, that option’, but probably the bit you can’t judge is how much time players are going to take to settle, especially when for nearly every player we signed, Hearts is a bigger club from where they came from.
“Now my experience of going to Rangers from Kilmarnock, it’s sink or swim time at moments. So, there’s probably any element of that. Our first game against Rangers was excellent.
“All that was missing was the goal and then from there, you lose a couple of games, some bad decisions from me, individual error cost us a lot and before you know it, you’re trying to stem that tide.
“For me, it’s small moments, Dundee United at home, we control the game a lot, didn’t take any chances, they score late on with a deflected goal and that builds. A lot of people spoke about how big the job was before I took it. As a person I’ll evaluate everything, what are the pros and cons of going into any job? It was a big risk for me personally going in as a younger manager.
“[There’s] two things you need to do is – one – get success but then when you do that, you need keep it there because if you don’t pressure comes and you’re going to lose your job. That’s inevitably how it came about.
“I loved every minute of it. I thought we did a good job but at the cold end of it success and pressure and demands are there and if you don’t hit them you’re gonna lose your job and that’s what happened so I’m comfortable with it all.
“I’ve reflected on a lot of the decisions you do learn a lot. As a player you think you know it all, you go into coaching and then there’s other bits you go ‘that’s different to what it was like as I thought as a player’ and then it’s again, when you become a manager, it’s different again but I loved it, loved every minute of it. I love the intensity of it and just disappointed because I thought we had, Hearts do have a good squad and I think they will come good this season.”
The Warm-Up is William Hill’s weekly SPFL preview show hosted by Gordon Duncan and Sam North. You can find the full episode on The Warm-Up YouTube channel, where episodes premiere every Friday. We would kindly appreciate if you would credit The Warm-Up in copy and link to the full show.