Cathro in quest for quiet life

Tynecastle manager says he’s well able to let rip at players if he needs to. Darren Johnstone reports

PERCEPTION: the way in which something is regarded, understood or interpreted.

Following an inauspicious start to his tenure as Hearts head coach, Ian Cathro is well aware that every facet of his stewardship is under intense scrutiny.

Some supporters don’t believe the 30-year-old is capable of delivering the hairdryer treatment to his under-performing squad. Was that the reason for director of football Craig Levein’s apparent presence in the dressing room at half time during the recent 2-0 defeat at Aberdeen?

Then there is his vocabulary. Cathro is unorthodox in the way he speaks about the game and the challenges he faces. There is nothing wrong with that. But he knows some people will be more than willing to use it as a stick to hit him with.

A visit of Ladbrokes Premiership champions-in-waiting Celtic today is not the ideal match for a head coach who intends to get his side’s Europa League qualifying hopes back on track, while also trying to win over any doubters.

Sitting around a table with journalists last week, the former Valencia and Newcastle United assistant manager was asked if showing his emotions was something that came naturally to him.

“Yes,” he replied. “In this room and other places? No. But in my place? My room? Yeah, it does.

“It’ll be a while before that maybe creeps from the confines of what’s ‘us’ outside.

“I understand some people having that perception. I get that. Younger, been [to] different places, uses different vocabulary sometimes, but if that fight, if that feeling’s not in you, you don’t do what I’ve done.

“Everything needs to be clear and make sense, be reasoned and solid and strong, with no sense of just being emotional. It has to be real.”

It is widely accepted within the modern game that shouting and bawling at players can be self-defeating, so how does Cathro attempt to maintain authority?

“It comes across in all manner of ways,” he said. “Today, the vast majority, particularly at the highest level, comes from knowledge and players believing you can help them.

“Subsequently you have things that help the team and that connects the whole thing. In different situations, when things are good, dealing with them appropriately, and when things are bad, dealing with that appropriately. And balancing demands and respect.”

Fourth place in the top-flight could offer a route into the

Europa League but Hearts are now having to play catch-up on St Johnstone following a run of just five wins from 17 games in all competitions.

Cathro talked about Hearts not being compliant to the historical expectation of finishing behind the Old Firm when he was first appointed as Robbie Neilson’s successor in December. He remains ambitious, while being pragmatic.

“That’s got to be something which becomes completely normal for this club [qualifying for Europe]. You have to factor in the last couple of seasons, the difficulty and all those things but when you look at the infrastructure and you start to feel the ambition that exists inside the club, then playing Europa League games has to be normal. And it has to reach a point where we have a squad, a team, an infrastructure that can go and compete on that stage.”

Asked if it points to reaching the group stage of the Europa League, he said: “To reach a point where we can compete for that. There is time involved in that, but when you look at the infrastructure, you visualise the new stand, you visualise that stadium being full and so on, when you start to go down that path you see that and I believe that that’s something we can aspire to. When you offer inconsistency in what we’ve done, and we’ve probably had a couple of false starts, to focus too much on that line and for that to be a point of discussion, I’ve not really earned the right to really have that discussion or talk too much about those things.”

Hearts goalkeeper Jack Hamilton is relishing the prospect of being the first team to inflict a domestic defeat on Celtic. He said: “It would be brilliant but we need to try to get ourselves going again.”

Playing Europa League games has to be normal. And it has to reach a point where we have a squad, a team, an infrastructure that can compete on that stage