Building for the future is Cathro’s aim
IAN CATHRO watched in awe this week as the new field of dreams at Tynecastle moved a step closer to becoming a reality. As the steel framework of the new £12million main stand started to take shape, it hardened the Hearts head coach’s resolve to put a team on the park worthy of the first-class 20,000 capacity facility.
Cathro admits results have not been ideal since he took over from Robbie Neilson in December.
Last Saturday’s victory over struggling Dundee was only his second win in ten matches and in midweek the rookie head coach was given a vote of confidence from club owner Ann Budge.
But in viewing the club building for the future, Cathro hopes to sort out his short-term issues to produce a team that will look at home in one of Scotland’s finest stadiums.
‘It’s great to see the new stand taking shape. It makes it a bit more real,’ said Cathro.
‘You start to envisage the main stand rising and you see it’s still going to be really close to the pitch. It’s very exciting — and it’s massively inspiring for me building a squad.
‘One of the biggest reasons this job was the right step for me was because of the ambition that exists here and the desire for this club to grow.
‘I know at the moment we are not doing that in terms of delivering the results we need to deliver.
‘But that is something that is addressed in the short term, whilst working on all the other aspects we need to work on to make sure we are ready to take the next step.
‘We want the pressure of pushing higher. The short-termism doesn’t frustrate me. It’s accepted. It is part of the reality of the game.
‘It’s hard to ask people to look three, six, nine months down the line. Today is always a bigger thing in your mind than tomorrow.
‘The challenge is to be able to deal with the long term and the short term.
‘We’ve got to work to progress and to push higher domestically and then look at a point where we can become a club worthy of playing in the Europa League.
‘We are clear on what we want for the future but there are still games this season left for us to make our mark.’
Hearts are away in their last three matches of the season to aid with the new stand being built.
They will also play their first four matches of the new season away from home until new-look Tynecastle is completed on September 8.
Hearts have only won three away matches this season but Cathro is not daunted by starting the new league season with four road trips. Nor is he concerned about being sent three times this season to face rivals for fourth place, St Johnstone, at McDiarmid Park.
‘I’m comfortable with the post-split fixtures,’ said Cathro, whose side hope to remedy their away-day troubles at Kilmarnock tonight.
‘(St Johnstone away again) is not something that knocks me too far positive or too far negative. There’s no major stress. There’s a nice pitch and, at that time in the season, there may even be sunshine at 7:45pm. It’s all good.
‘Our away form needs to be addressed. But I’m not stressed about starting next season away from home.
‘We will miss Tynecastle. I will miss it and I’m just getting to know the place. It’s a great place to be tasked with winning games of football.
‘We will just be looking forward to getting back to playing in front of even more people at Tynecastle who are demanding that we win.’
In a statement on Wednesday night, Budge declared she was ‘pleased’ with a top-six finish and noted that slipping down from second to fifth under Cathro was against the backdrop of squad change — forced and unforced.
She also stressed that Cathro alone, and not director of football Craig Levein, picks the team.
‘We speak a lot, so there was nothing new to me in the statement,’ said Cathro.
‘We have regular dialogue about a whole number of things but that’s another thing that’s refreshing about this club. The communication and transparency.’
Meanwhile, Hearts striker Isma Goncalves is thriving after turning down the chance to earn more money by playing elsewhere.
‘I had other opportunities to earn more money but there are more important things than money,’ said the five-goal striker.
‘I could have gone to Azerbaijan and places like that but I made decisions based on money before when I went to play in Saudi Arabia two years ago. I was not going to do that again.’