These are the things you can lose your focus with if you’re not careful
drawn into things instead of asking yourself, ‘Can I influence it? No.’
“Can I influence the players in here and what we do? Yes, so that will be all I’m bothered about.
“I’m only aware of it (conflict) when people are speaking about it. I suppose I’ll experience more of it the longer I’m here.
“But I can’t be doing with political issues, I can’t be bothered dealing with it so you’d get a stock answer from me.”
Give him a couple of last-minute penalty snubs and we’ll see how the diplomatic stance endures but for now Heckingbottom is right to steer clear of peripheral topics that could distract him from the task at hand.
Even when those distractions come finding him, like last Saturday night after watching his side deliver a winning start to his reign at home to Hamilton.
He added: “My parents were up so I took them out for a meal after the game and met a couple of fans. The first one was a Hearts fan but he was nice to me, so it was all right.
“I’m sure not every Hearts fan will be so positive if we get where we want to be. You can’t please everyone in a city that’s split.
“I’m settling in but house hunting is a necessity because we’ve got no broadband in that place. So we’re either at the training ground or sat in a hotel somewhere trying to get good broadband. Logistics like that make a big difference to your job. If a 30-second job turns into a 30-minute job it all adds up.
“We’ve watched a lot of videos, of the opposition and of us, to help planning but the emphasis is very much on us now and it will be going forward.”
He already knows about Stevie Mallan, signed by Heckingbottom when he was Barnsley boss yet only made a handful of first-team appearances under him.
But Heckingbottom insists the midfielder has no reason to fear for his place.
He added: “I have worked with Stevie and it might look like he didn’t play much for me. But near the end of my time he was in and around the team all the time so has nothing to worry about.”