Skippers require a safe pair of hands to steady the ship at Hearts
ANN BUDGE has already achieved enough in her three years at Hearts to safely exclude her from that sizeable group of business people who surrender all semblance of sanity the minute they cross the threshold of a football club.
Just occasionally, however, the woman who made her millions in the IT industry issues a reminder of why she would never attempt to present herself as the solution to every problem that blows down Gorgie Road.
Speaking last December, just two weeks after Ian Cathro had been appointed, Budge’s view on the time-span required for a head coach to make the desired impact jarred sharply with conventional wisdom.
‘In any normal business, when you have a change of senior management, I think it is generally recognised that it can take around a year before the manager starts to make a big difference,’ said Budge.
‘Things that happen in that first year can often be down to the previous manager. I don’t see why football should be any different.’
No one present was of a mind to point out that, rightly or wrongly, the reason football is significantly different to most other industries is the emotion that runs through it and relentless demand for progress to manifest itself in positive results. Patience is the rarest of commodities.
You could see in that moment why Budge needed a figure like Craig Levein to hold her hand and talk her through the peculiarities of this often illogical world.
But just because she values the director of football’s counsel isn’t to say that she’s blinded to his fallibility, either. Levein went all in with Cathro. No one in this life is exempt from making mistakes but he got the appointment wrong and spectacularly so.
Contrary to much of what has been said since Cathro was jettisoned on Tuesday, there is nothing wrong in principle with the structure that Hearts have in place. It stopped working because the cog Levein added to the machinery was flawed.
It’s not just that one costly error that has turned the heat up on the former Scotland manager as he and the board seek to identify Cathro’s successor in the coming days. It may be true that any football club depends enormously on the backing of its support to prosper but at Hearts, the very viability of the club depends solely on that relationship.
Since those dark days of administration in June 2013, the Foundation of Hearts have handed over around £5million towards the club’s rebuilding. Still ploughing in £125,000 a month on top of purchasing season tickets and jerseys, the Foundation is paying for around 25 per cent of the construction of the new main stand while helping nurse the club back to full health.
If its 8,000 members’ ambition and generosity towards the club have been the envy of others, the flip side is that the club are hugely dependent on them and would do well not to test their patience.
Ensuring the man to replace Cathro meets with their approval is of paramount important then. Budge and Levein, who sit on a six-person board which includes two FoH members, will need no one to remind them of that fact.
So while it goes without saying an ability to coach and motivate the players will be the main skill set the board are looking for, the appointment must also excite, unite and energise the fan base.
To that end, Levein will need to be prepared to move the goalposts to accommodate candidates that would not have fitted into the ‘succession’ plan he’s previously spoken of.
Speaking in the days after Robbie Neilson’s defection to MK Dons, Levein’s job description appeared to red pen many individuals who had already taken their first steps in management.
‘How to put this?’ he said then. ‘The salary is not astronomical and, just like signing players, sometimes you need to see potential in people and develop them with room to improve.’
HE added: ‘A lot of experienced managers can be set in their ways and have expectation levels of salary and suchlike. Some of the really serious ones, if we were to go after them, we wouldn’t be able to afford them.
‘It is about finding someone who is value for money, who maybe doesn’t have the ceilings in their thought processes that everyone else in Scotland has.’
There are parallels to be drawn between the appointment of Cathro at Hearts and Ronny Deila at Celtic. At the time both were bold and imaginative but, without question, huge gambles. And just as Celtic belatedly realised that the time to roll the dice had gone, Hearts must also surely appreciate that a safe, stellar name must be next to occupy their dugout.
Peter Houston, assistant to Levein at Hearts, Dundee United and Scotland, is a man whose credentials are beyond question. He brought the Scottish Cup to Tannadice in 2010 and would need assurances about the autonomy of the head coach’s position before considering leaving Falkirk, but may find the allure of a return to the Premiership too great.
At 43, Steven Pressley is another who ticks many boxes — not least of which is the fact that his age is commensurate with the profile of the head coach.
Pressley spent eight years at Tynecastle between 1998 and 2006 and Levein’s admiration for him was underscored when he made him his captain in 2001.
Any lingering antipathy towards Pressley for eventually joining Celtic has surely long died down given he was only axed by Vladimir Romanov for having the temerity to publicly stand up to the then owner’s ruinous ways.
Seeking the right next move in his managerial career after resigning as Fleetwood Town boss 12 months ago, Pressley offers many of the qualities Cathro patently could not.
‘On a personal level, I hold him in the highest regard, from initially being a young player at Hearts and having him as my captain,’ said former team-mate Andy Webster. ‘He looked after me unbelievably well, not just on the park but off it as well.
‘We obviously struck up a great relationship and a great partnership on the playing side of it.
‘He was very successful at Hearts as a player and led the club through some interesting situations, things that don’t normally occur, and he handled those impeccably.
‘He led by example and all the other things you would expect from a great captain. He’s someone I respected and someone I looked up to when I was a young player coming through at Hearts.
‘Further down the line, he took me to Coventry when he was manager. Obviously, I have this association with him, but it’s probably more of a working relationship than a personal one. It’s a different relationship when you are manager and player.
‘And, having worked under him, I can’t speak highly enough of him as a coach and a manager.’
Jon Daly, who will face the media this morning, will take charge of the side at Celtic Park on Saturday but will have to bide his time for that arrangement to become more long lasting. The time for experimentation is over.