Hearts are unfit for purpose so Cathro is thrust into the line of fire
HEADS must surely roll if it keeps going on like this at Hearts. Everyone keeps hammering on about it, but the fact remains that the Tynecastle club were second in the Premiership table when Robbie Neilson, whose reign had its own detractors, left for MK Dons in December.
They are certainly not there now. And that is why it is only right that his successor Ian Cathro is very much in the line of fire.
The teams he has been sending out over the past few months have, more often than not, been unfit for purpose. His dealings in the transfer market have been largely inadequate. Remarks about goalposts or lack of them are hardly helping his case. And that is before we have come to the vital statistics.
Hearts are now fifth in the table, three points clear of Partick Thistle. Anyone who has watched both sides recently — particularly their February meeting at Firhill — cannot possibly believe the Tynecastle side will be ahead of them come the end of the season.
Cathro has won five games out of 19. In losing 1-0 to St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on Wednesday evening, his side managed one shot on target, delivered by Bjorn Johnsen on 66 minutes, which possessed all the forward momentum of a drunk man walking into a force nine gale.
They have failed to score in five of their last six league matches.
Jamie Walker started off through the centre in Perth with Johnsen and Esmael Goncalves on either side. He was back out wide before you knew it. It hinted of a certain desperation.
The whole project just seems a bit directionless. It is not easy to explain to someone what style of football they could expect if they rolled along to Tynecastle on a matchday and that is not a good thing.
Heading steadily towards fan ownership and rebuilding their spiritual home in Gorgie, there is a clear dichotomy — a Jekyll and Hyde quality — between their on and off-field levels of surety right now.
They are bottoming out on the park, bereft of self-belief, but Cathro does appear to have the solid backing of director of football, Craig Levein.
As bad as this season gets — and there may still be some way to go — it is difficult to see how this young, inexperienced coach could be jettisoned without at least being given a full summer and a proper go of putting his stamp on the team.
Of course, there are fair questions to be asked of Levein, too. They need not all focus on what he was doing in the dressing room at Pittodrie. He has been in position now for almost three years. Directors of football, we are told, are there to promote continuity no matter how often the head coach may change.
Hearts allowed things to get to such a stage that nine players had to be brought in from all manner of weird and wonderful locations in January. They have not gelled well. Against this backdrop, it is possible to have a little sympathy for Cathro.
Levein is often described by people close to Hearts as pretty much bombproof, though. Ann Budge is busy enough building a new stand, by the looks of things, to be focusing too much on the team — although it is tempting to think this period of footballing freefall is one of the few occasions her reign has looked to be spinning a little outwith her control.
If all that is the case, we’re down to looking at the players, again, in identifying just who will be invited to kneel before the guillotine. A number are out of contract in the summer. Others must privately be preparing for the chop.
Don Cowie still has the best part of a year-and-a-half to go on his deal, but he is certainly expecting even more upheaval in the dressing room. It does not seem to operate any other way at a club, given its academy system and facilities, which should exude a greater air of being built on solid foundations.
‘Ultimately, you’re always playing for your future,’ said Cowie, the former Scotland midfielder. ‘In the 14 months I’ve been here, the changes have been incredible — even from last year.
‘They’re always trying to strive to be better. That was the case last summer and I’m sure it will be the same this summer, so it’s up to us to say we want to be at this club long-term.
‘The manager is fully confident in what he thinks he can achieve and we’ve got to jump on the back of that and try to go with him.
‘He knew when he got the job there was a lot of scrutiny because of his age and his lack of playing and he’s taken it full-on.
‘Sometimes, you’ve just got to look beyond him and look at us. It’s the players who haven’t performed well enough on a regular basis.’
That is, of course, true. But shoving nine of them into the same squad during the January window cannot be conducive to a harmony. This is a club that needs to get settled quickly.
‘We talked after the Aberdeen game about the continuity they’ve got,’ said Cowie. ‘They’ve probably been together three years as a squad and you see consistent results.
‘That was ten home wins this week and that’s not a fluke. They are used to each other. You saw it at St Johnstone.
‘They know their strengths, they’re together and get results. It’s a squad that’s been together for a long time. That’s something we need to learn from.
‘It’s well-documented that there were a lot of changes in January and it’s not an excuse. That’s just what happened.
‘It’s a good squad, though, good pedigree players. We’ve got to look at ourselves. There’s no point hiding behind the manager.’