The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Cathro’s doubters may not be seeing the big picture
Many in Scottish football tripped headlong over their boot laces this week to collectively cry foul when 30-year-old Dundonian Ian Cathro was appointed as Hearts boss.
As the youngest manager in the country – and as one who has never played the game professionally – his installation was greeted by some current and former pros and journalists with spluttering and choking disbelief.
They demanded to know how he would manage a dressing room never having had played the game at any meaningful level, and mocked the fact that he used a laptop in his tactical analysis and work, as though he were a spotty teenager playing football games on the big screen in his bedroom.
It may well be they who are failing to see the big picture, however.
It’s the classic cry in all trades and professions when someone who is deemed not to have worked his way through the ranks is promoted in front of those who have served the full apprenticeship.
True, Cathro is a young appointee in football managerial terms, but having started as a youth coach at Dundee United, he has held senior positions at Rio Ave, Valencia and Newcastle Utd – hardly the CV of the bloke next door running a Sunday league team. Of course it’s a gamble by Hearts. Every managerial appointment is a throw of the dice.
Cathro has garnered an almost mystical reputation as a visionary coach, although his critics will argue no one is sure just what secrets of the football universe he has ever actually unlocked. They have a point. Scottish football, in its quest for a bold, bright future, has to be careful that it’s not taken in by flannel merchants and wafflers.
We’ve had enough of that from previous experts.
There is, however, no suggestion that the Hearts boss is either of those things.
Instead, he is informed by and has developed a deeply analytical approach to the game, which has been the norm in Europe for a long time.
We react negatively to this despite the abundant evidence of our own spectacular football failings over the last 30 years and more.
Hearts have developed a methodology and system under director of football Craig Levein, which coaches will fit into.
They will engage and marry into the club philosophy rather than the other way around.
This should ensure that when one coach leaves another of similar mind can make the transition with ease and certainty.
The sport of football has changed – it’s just that we in this country didn’t really think we had anything to learn from elsewhere, despite the overwhelming preponderance of evidence to the contrary, as our club sides and national teams failed spectacularly on the European and world stages.
Ian Cathro’s appointment, along with coach Austin MacPhee, the assistant at Northern Ireland and a man schooled in a similar football philosophy, has excited the Tynecastle faithful and has intrigued many fans in Scotland who are tired of our antediluvian and anti-knowledge approach to the game.
Whether the optimists or the cynics will be proved right, only the future and results will reveal.
Cathro has garnered an almost mystical reputation as a visionary coach