Grand tactics are all very well, but it is man-management that counts
AT the time it was hailed as a hipster appointment although why Ian Cathro became linked with such pretentious poseurs remains a mystery.
Don’t hipsters tend to have long and straggly beards. The Hearts manager hasn’t started shaving yet. There are a lot of things he has still to begin.
So far, after 14 games in charge at Tynecastle, the 30-year-old has yet to hint that he has what it takes, at least right now, to be a manager.
He’s only won four times and this run includes a drubbing at Easter Road in the Scottish Cup. Given that his team was booed off the pitch on his first match, a day which saw Hearts comfortably beating Partick Thistle at home and going on to be thrashed 1-1 by the end, time was never going to be his friend.
Hearts take on struggling Ross County in Edinburgh tonight. He has to start winning, his team need to show the supporters, who have watched a promising second-place season fall apart, that they are with their laptop loving gaffer.
Because if they don’t, if Hearts continue to stumble along as they have been, if Cathro continues to come out with observations which don’t really tally up, I do wonder whether Ann Budge and Craig Levein will blink and put an end to their brave if perhaps too risky strategy.
There are quite a few people inside Scottish football who want Cathro to fail. He is too young, too geeky and doesn’t come from the right background. In short, the former Newcastle United first team coach should never have been given such a high profile and soughtafter job.
To judge a man in such a way is a nonsense. Equally, to have hailed his appointment as somehow brilliant and innovative just because it’s the contrary view was presumptuous in the extreme. However, those doubters must feel vindicated at the moment.
Losing 2-0 to Partick Thistle on the back of being outclassed by Hibernian, who are in a lower league remember, was bad enough. The worst aspect, and this has been evident in a few games, is that a once powerful Hearts side have been physically dominated in games.
This is Scotland. We like a tackle up here. Celtic are the best team in the country and while they play great stuff, there are also more than a few in there who don’t mind putting in the boot.
The most successful British side of the last 20 years was Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. They played terrific football at times. Led by Roy Keane, they could also boot opponents off the pitch.
To be successful in Scotland as a Premiership manager, your team has to be able to win the battle before they become Barcelona. Cathro wants his team to play the right way and that is commendable; however, he has to get his players back to where they were under Robbie Neilson.
I want Cathro to do well. He’s clearly an intelligent man, a deep thinker who will spend every minute of the day pouring over tactics, formations and the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses. That makes him a coach, but does it make him a manager?
Do you remember the flack Kris Boyd got when in his newspaper column with The Sun ripped Cathro to shreds? At the time it seemed a bit unnecessary, but the Kilmarnock player said a few things back then which stand up.
“Cathro is about to find out what football’s like in the real world. No harm to the guy. I was on the same Pro Licence course as Cathro and he’s definitely obsessed with coaching. He’s one of the modern-era coaches who can organise a session by flicking open his laptop.
“There isn’t a session out there he couldn’t get on to his Macbook. But setting up a presentation to a group of players is all well and good. That doesn’t require man-management skills, which is part of the game he knows absolutely nothing about.
“Time will tell if I’m wrong on that. But if I was a Jambo I’d be worried. The practical stuff involved in coaching is easy – it’s dealing with highly-charged players that’s the hard part. For me Cathro is way, way out of his depth.”
So far, Boyd has been proven right, which doesn’t mean that Cathro can’t prove him wrong. But I worry for him.
He has still to convince as a manager, someone the players respect and fear, the guy who can walk into the dressing room and every single thing he says is listened to and taken on.
Cathro said on Monday that he can only be himself and that he won’t change. Whether such self-belief is enough to see him through is something I am beginning to doubt.