Ian Cathro has reflected on his brief tenure as Hearts boss and insists Scotland’s attitude towards rookie managers meant that he was always up against it in the capital.
The 38-year-old landed the job in Gorgie in the December 2016 after spells as a number two across the continent with Rio Ave in Portugal and Valencia in Spain and as assistant manager to Steve McClaren and later Rafael Benitez at Newcastle. His appointment was brutally ridiculed by former Rangers striker Kris Boyd, who in his newspaper column, described Cathro as out of his depth and that he had probably not been that excited since FIFA 17 came out on PlayStation.
As it turned out, Cathro’s tenure in Gorgie lasted just over seven months. After the Jambos fell to a fifth place Premiership finish, Cathro got the sack after a disastrous campaign in the League Cup in the following summer where they were dumped out in the group stages.
A year after his exit, the Dundee-native returned to his post as a number two buy following Nuno Espirito Santo to Wolves, Tottenham and Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League. But last summer, Cathro opted to have another stab at management when he took up the reins at Portuguese top tier side Estoril. After 16 games, his team currently sit comfortably in mid-table and are hoping to build on last season’s 13th place finish.
And in an interview with journalist Henry Winter looking back on his short tenure at Tynecastle shared in a series of posts on X, Cathro has hit out at his detractors in Scottish football. He said: “I took away the space from somebody else. I couldn’t get people on the phone that were writing the articles, I didn’t play fives with them on a Wednesday night. I was far from being in that little bubble.
“There was something about a young Scottish coach who hadn’t played but had already worked at clubs like Valencia and Newcastle. Unfortunately, there’s something in the Scottish psyche that would rather pull that person back down than use that person to inspire others. Not everyone. But it’s definitely an attitude that exists unfortunately.”
Cathro also revealed that a chat with Portugal boss Roberto Martinez has helped him to manage the balance between football and family life. “We both thought we’d speak about football and we ended up just speaking about family life.”, he added. “Roberto had the view that to have real comfort for your work, family has to be with you.
“I’m not a guy who’s going to sacrifice that. That’s also helped me immensely. To the ninth degree I’m a better coach particularly in the most important moment which is during the game because I’ve had the fortune of becoming a husband and a father. My wife has a lot of patience for this (itinerant) life and I’m eternally grateful. Home is wherever my wife and daughter are.”