Pressley pleased to see Naismith keep the beat during first year in management
Former club captain points to key reasons Tynecastle manager is hitting the high notes during Hearts reign
FOR Hearts legend Steven Pressley it is as easy as one, two, three. While he understands that the jury was out on Steven Naismith in his early managerial reign at Tynecastle, the former club captain reckons Naismith has given the men in maroon reasons to be cheerful.
For one thing, the former Tynecastle striker has quietened all the outside noise surrounding the club. Two, he has managed to appease both goalkeepers Craig Gordon and Zander Clark. Three, he kept front man Lawrence Shankland at the club in January and amongst the goals.
Pressley does not want to tempt fate but he believes Naismith could well be a top manager in the making:
“There isn’t a lot of noise coming from the club right now and that’s a healthy sign,” the 50-year-old said. “There was a lot of noise when I was there! Earlier in the [current] season there was but not anymore. It feels calm and it tells me Hearts are in a good place.
“I said earlier in the season they had too big a reliance on Lawrence Shankland but in recent weeks there has been a bigger spread of goals. He only scored one of the four against Livingston and if you look at the metrics, third is where they should be.
“The stats also tell you they are improving and growing as a team, so there is a lot to be happy about at
Hearts. Listen, time will tell, as we all know. Steven’s made a good start to his managerial career with Hearts. He’s shown good resilience from his early period of difficulty.
“He seems to have got his group together but, equally around that, I think he is doing a really good job and I think you need to give Hearts credit as well.
“There is stability in general around the club. They have a sporting director who has been there a number of years now, good support staff within the first team that have been there for a number of years, and even one of the assistant coaches that was there with Robbie Neilson.
“Naismith will be thinking I am at a club just now where there is great continuity, great stability and I think it is so important in football to have that to allow you to grow, so I think we are seeing that. We are seeing the emergence of Steven, a good young manager, at a club with good stability.”
Pressley readily admits that he was surprised to see Shankland stay in Gorgie in January after being touted with a move to both halves of the Glasgow divide.
Hearts can take a huge step to convincing Shankland to stay in Edinburgh by proving on Sunday that they can compete for Scottish football’s biggest prizes – although as Pressley pointed out it may well come down to finances in the summer.
Pressley said: “The biggest challenge facing Hearts now is to keep a hold of Shankland. Every successful team generally has a 20-goal-a-season striker and if they can keep Shankland and keep the stability around the club and add a sprinkling of players then I think they can keep improving and moving forward. I think he is really important to that.
“But it is all down to money. It is whether or not Hearts can actually appease that situation which they may well be able to do. They have got good investment behind them. I think keeping him is massive.
“At present Steven is doing a good job. I read that he had spoken about good stability and good support from within the club. I know from my own time as a manager in my first job I was very fortunate to have Alex Smith behind me [at Falkirk]. People underestimate how important support is to a young manager and he seems to be getting that just now and that allows him to prosper and do his job properly.”
At the other end, shot-stopper Gordon continues to defy his critics and medical science as he chases his fourth Scottish Cup success at the ripe old age of 41. The Scotland internationalist returned to the first team last weekend as he made his first league start of the season in the 4-2 victory over Livingston in West Lothian. Pressley was full of praise for how Naismith was handling the Gordon-Clark goalkeeping dynamic after Naismith revealed that he will have a chat with both goalkeepers as to who gets the nod for Sunday’s showpiece occasion.
Pressley said: “Gordon seems to smash every record I had at Hearts! I am pretty sure there will be another one along soon. He continues to defy what people think regarding his career. Is it the end or is it not? He keeps bouncing back, which is fantastic resilience from him.
“When I look at my own career, I retired at the age of 34/35. Do I have regrets? Yes. It’s that I would have loved to play a lot longer and prolong my career because you are a long time retired and I think he is doing everything right.
“I would say to Craig, ‘Play until you physically can’t anymore’. I watched the game last weekend and he looked a little rusty.
“He was, potentially, culpable in
both goals, but that will not affect him in any shape or form as he is so experienced. I am pretty certain that Steven will have had a conversation with Zander on that and certain that he’ll understand that. I am sure that Craig is a hugely supportive goalkeeper towards him, so I think it is good management. Part of management, of course, you have to win games but you have got to keep some form of harmony within your group and he is doing that to good effect.”
Now “Elvis” believes that Hearts are ready to take the biggest step on the road to progression as Naismith’s men are travelling to Hampden Park for Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final with the firm belief that they can finally get their first major win over Rangers at the national stadium.
He reckons that Rangers are there to be shot at and that Ibrox manager Philippe Clement is experiencing his first real taste of pressure since the Belgian joined the Govan club.
The man who skippered Hearts to Scottish Cup glory against Gretna in 2006, said: “It’s important to handle the occasion, I always felt in my time at Hearts that the growth of the team was really important.
“I remember going to play the Old Firm in the early years under Craig Levein and we went to Celtic Park and Ibrox hoping we would get a result. But after a few years of playing together, we went there believing we would get a result.
“Whatever anyone says, the psychological aspects of football are so important. That genuine belief within your club that you are not turning up in hope, but actually believing you can win this game.
“Rangers are there to be got at but it’s the belief in doing that. I do think in the dressing room they have grown. You have to build, you have to get results that create that kind of belief.”
The biggest challenge facing Hearts now is to keep a hold of Shankland. Every successful team has a 20-goal-a-season striker