WHEN Ian Cathro breezed confidently into Tynecastle last December it caused a real stir among everyone within the closed walls of Scottish Football.
It split opinion: the old school/ex-pro way of finishing your career, doing your badges and joining the "inner circle"; and the new, modern age of coaching – laptops, statistical analysis of games.
The "Champ Manager" glitterati lapped up Cathro's appointment. Of course, you didn't have to have played the game at a high level to know your stuff and go on to be a top manager. Jose Mourinho is as a prime example. A current, well-known player came out and slaughtered Cathro before a cone was dropped – very unfairly in my opinion – but, you know what, It's looking more and more likely he was right.
From coaching youth players at Dundee United – among them the talented duo of Ryan Gauld and John Souttar – to working his way up to the heights of first-team coach at Valencia and Newcastle, Cathro had built up a reputation as a bright, innovative young coach. He was a hot prospect being linked to some massive gigs and was being spoken about in almost mythical terms. The feeling was Cathro was a real catch for Hearts. A top young coach.
But coach is the key word here. There is a massive difference between being a coach or an assistant to actually being a manager. The main man, numero uno, and the guy who lives and dies by his results on a Saturday; having that dominating presence and authority in the dressing room to handle 20-25 guys fighting for 11 spots in the team. Players can smell weakness in managers immediately and once that happens it is game over. I have seen that at first hand. I'm afraid that is what it looks like for Cathro at the moment. He looks woefully out of his depth.
In saying that, I don't think the man who actually brought him in, Craig Levein, has done him any favours. Passing notes down from the stand and being in the dressing room at half-time and full-time speaking to players? If I was a player in that situation I would be asking who's actually in charge here? It has undermined him big time.
Cathro's decision to leave out Jamie Walker from the pool of 18 on Saturday could be fatal. Yes, Walker has been off the boil for the last six months and not the same player who had attracted such interest; but when I'm under pressure and I need a goal in the last 20 minutes, do I turn to the bench and put him, my top scorer last season, on or Malaury Martin? It reeked of cutting his nose off to spite his face.
Since coming in last December he has won just eight games out of 30, including 15 defeats. Among those was a loss to part-timers Peterhead. Let's not forget this was a Hearts team going great guns under Robbie Nielson before he took over. Cathro has, according to reports, scoured Europe to recruit players – most of whom have either failed miserably and vanished back out the door before the Edinburgh Festival kicked off, or are sitting on three-year contracts like the above mentioned Martin.
Cathro has had eight months in the job and two transfer windows to improve the team and, by the looks of it already, they have gotten even worse. Again, managers live and die by their recruitment and his has been an abject failure so far.
It was all set up for Cathro to kick on and really establish Hearts as a top-three or four club but the way it is going now they won't even finish in the top six.
With the Foundation of Hearts pumping in big money every month to keep the club going those punters are now rightfully asking serious questions about where the club is going on the park. With the new stand just about completed, It now looks likely a fresh incumbent will be sitting in that shiny new home dugout this season.
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