THE FACE-OFF FOR SURVIVAL
Defiant Heckingbottom insists he doesn’t need any vote of confidence from new Hibs owner
AVOTE of confidence? What would he do with one of those, print it out and attach it to his CV as proof of football’s fickle fortunes? Paul Heckingbottom hasn’t felt the need to seek reassurances about his future from Ron Gordon. Not once during their recent chats, it seems, has the subject come up.
As for whether the Hibs boss would welcome the kind of public backing Hearts counterpart Craig Levein got from his board earlier this week, well, the Yorkshireman smiles at the very thought.
‘I don’t think I need that,’ he said, quickly adding: ‘Does it mean anything? I don’t think it means anything, anyway. Come on…
‘We all know what it’s like and what football is. You have to just laugh about some of the things.
‘Some of the questions you get asked, some of the answers you have to give. You have to, for your own sanity. If we spent time worrying about all that and trying to be a politician, we wouldn’t win anything.
‘Leave the politics and all that to those people. We just want to work with players, try to win games.’
Asked outright if new Hibs owner Gordon had offered him reassurances since taking over from Sir Tom Farmer, Heckingbottom said: ‘No, I’ve just been told, from when the owner came in and Sir Tom left, that nothing has changed.’
Gordon has flown back to America, meaning he’ll miss tomorrow’s Edinburgh derby at Easter Road.
If that seems an odd decision so early in his tenure as majority shareholder, might it also signify a desire not to be around when the tough decisions are made?
With Hibs sitting just two points clear of bottom side Hearts, a home loss would hardly endear Heckingbottom to fans already questioning his recruitment, his team selections and his tactics.
It’s a sense of some frustration, on his part, that round six of the new league season should already be cast as make-or-break for at least one — possibly two — managers under fire.
‘It is what football has come to,’ he said. ‘Managers have already lost their jobs this season, having set records and reached cup finals last season. That’s what it is.
‘If you spend time worrying about it, making decisions because you’re trying to save jobs, not doing what you believe in or pushing to create something, you are always going to be short-term.
‘It is a frustrating part of the job, something that winds you up. Probably gets me more angry than worried, you know?
‘It’s something you always have to deal with. It’s today’s world, they want everything now. It is different.
‘The positions you find yourself in, talking hypothetically, not about me now, whether it’s good form, bad form, there are a lot of things that change it.
‘There are fans’ perceptions, how things are reported in the media, there’s social media.
‘That can be ignored depending on your relationship with the owners and long-term plans.
‘So many things come into the dynamic of trying to be successful.
‘A lot of it you just have to ignore. You have to ignore the noise if you know, as a coach, what your role is within a club and what you’ve been pushed to do, what support you’re getting, your part in a bigger plan.
‘As a manager, you are always out in front of the cameras, speaking about it. And you’ve got to lead as much as you can, be the face. You’re paid to do that.
‘But you’re not the most important person at the club. The decisionmakers are.
‘The decision-makers have the money, pay the wages, set the plan, drive it forward. So the only thing we have to focus on and be bothered about is that relationship.’
Probed on how much dialogue he enjoys with Gordon, Heckingbottom said: ‘It just depends. The last three or four weeks, quite a bit.
‘The chairman’s been over quite a bit, so there’s been lots of interaction, lots of informal conversations about football, about us, about this club, about how he’s finding this role.
‘I can sit here and talk, when I’ve been doing it forever, getting judged and trying to get three points, answering questions, if I’m not careful I can belittle someone coming into it fresh. Do you know what I mean?
‘But we’ve had those conversations about what it’s really like, coming into football. We had a massive turnaround at the start of the season and we know we’re in a position to improve.’