I’ll prove there is no barrier for any aspiring coaches

The dressing room is not a zoo, footballers are intelligent human beings

IN AN interview in March of last year, Austin MacPhee opined that Scottish Premiership clubs still viewed a playing pedigree as a prerequisite for a manager or his assistant.

His arrival at Tynecastle underlines just how much attitudes have changed in the subsequent 20 months. The top division is now emphatically headed by the reinvigorated Celtic of Brendan Rodgers, forced to retire from playing due to a knee condition at the age of 20.

In second place lie Rangers and Mark Warburton, who juggled a developing City career with part-time action for non-league Enfield and Boreham Wood.

Rodgers, though, obviously arrived at Parkhead with a strong management back-story from Liverpool, Swansea, Watford and Reading. Warburton had enjoyed 18 months of success at Brentford.

Hearts, operating with different financial restraints, have been bolder. In appointing Ian Cathro and MacPhee as their new management team, the Gorgie club have taken a further leap away from the ‘show us yer medals’ mentality.

For those who lament the lack of fresh ideas in Scottish football, it is seen as a potentially pivotal moment. A chance for the game to open up more to ‘outsiders’ in the way that enabled the likes of Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Arrigo Sacchi and Gerard Houllier to flourish on the continent.

A couple of appearances for Forfar Athletic amount to MacPhee’s premier playing achievement on these shores. Decamping to America on a scholarship, he collected a degree in psychology and English before further spells in Romania and Japan.

An entrepreneur who set up his own sporting tours business, MacPhee later joined the backroom staff of Cowdenbeath and then St Mirren before assuming the role of Michael O’Neill’s No 2 with Northern Ireland.

His distinctly atypical backstory is comparable to the well-travelled Cathro, younger of the pair by seven years, whom he will now assist at Hearts.

So does MacPhee think their partnership might mark a watershed in the way Scottish footbal approaches management?

‘Only if we do well,’ he smiled. ‘Sometimes young coaches who haven’t played use that as a barrier.

‘There’s been a lot said about what ex-professionals have said about Cathro, but I also think it’s up to coaches who haven’t played to be ambitious, to break in, to do that extra thing that you need to do to get in.

‘At the start, nobody’s going to open the door for you. You need to volunteer, do things for free, get yourself to the point where you can get in, and then if you’re good enough, there will be opportunities there.

‘Players ultimately want to see that you can help them be better. If you can do that, they’ll listen to you. People talk about the dressing room like you’re going into some kind of zoo. Footballers are human beings, and there are a lot of intelligent ones in there. The only thing that helps you govern the dressing-room is respect.

‘Pele could lose respect in ten minutes and I could gain respect in ten minutes. He’s not going to lose respect as a player but he’s going to lose respect as a manager if players think he can’t coach very well, if it’s not organised very well, if it doesn’t work, if they don’t believe in your ideas, if you don’t help them, if you don’t know that some people need a cuddle and some need a kick up the backside.

‘Ultimately, it comes down to basic human behaviour. There is a balance to be struck. People who haven’t played have got to try harder to get in initially, but they shouldn’t use that as a barrier. Likewise, people who have played shouldn’t use that as a CV requirement in coaching.

‘There is no right answer. It could be a watershed moment, but obviously we need to do well.’

MacPhee has previously regaled Sportsmail with the tale of how Changes: MacPhee is keen to show that you don’t need to be a top player to be a great coach

loaning Esmael Goncalves for St Mirren from Rio Ave, where Cathro was assistant manager, brought him into regular communication with the man who is now his boss.

The 37-year-old played the role of minder after Cathro warned of Goncalves’ party animal tendencies. It worked. The striker responded by scoring the opening goal as Saints knocked Celtic out of the League Cup.

MacPhee claims it is ‘a bit of a myth’ that he and Cathro are long-time friends but the respect between the pair is clear.

‘Craig Levein (Hearts director of football) and Ian spoke at length about what they perceive the assistant manager to be like, and I satisfied a number of those criteria,’ said MacPhee, reflecting on his appointment.

‘For me, coming here, a big part of it was listening to Ann Budge and Craig and knowing that you’re coming somewhere that, in the highs and in the lows, the direction the club is going — the objective, the strategy, the tactics — isn’t going to change.

‘The results and the team might change but there’s a really clear process both in the business model and on the pitch in terms of how they promote staff and young players.’

The chance to remain with Northern Ireland helped influence MacPhee to pick Hearts over pursuing interest in the SFA performance director role. But he feels Tynecastle will witness a very different brand of football.

‘We have looked at Northern Ireland in a pragmatic way,’ added MacPhee. ‘Another great appeal about Hearts is that they have a budget greater than most teams in the league, whereas with Northern Ireland we have players playing at a lower level than most teams we play against.

‘This means being involved in a different way of football. It can be aggressive, offensive and exciting. It can be dominant and hopefully make people stand up.

‘At Northern Ireland, we have to be a little bit more conservative in the way we play.

‘So, that is another big appeal. We will be on the front foot. I know a lot of Ian’s ideas and feel we can support them well.’