PERRY KITCHEN notes the commotion around Ian Cathro’s appointment as Hearts’ new head coach and wonders what all the fuss about. The Tynecastle captain’s background is in MLS in his native United States where young and promising young coaches are given their opportunity with rarely a second thought. Kitchen was a teenager at DC United when the capital club elected to make 33 year-old Ben Olsen their new manager. Olsen, incidentally, is still there six years later and among American’s most respected up-and-coming coaches. Kitchen does not expect the appointment of the 30 year-old Cathro to be any different.
“Ben was a young coach,” said the American, still only 24 himself. “I didn’t have much to compare it to because it was my first professional team. But it was a great experience and Ben has done a great job since. To hold a job anywhere for over two or three years in this day and age is pretty impressive – and he’s going into this seventh season. It’s a common thing in MLS for guys to go from being club legends as players straight into coaching, so we have a few young coaches.”
Kitchen can see only benefits in Cathro’s relative youth, and has been impressed with his early dealings with the new man. “I think there is a benefit in having a younger coach,” he added. “It’s a positive. But, when we saw Ian in the dressing room and he took us out to training, nobody was thinking about his age. We were very aware of how it’s going to be. He’s the coach. He’s in command. He’s out there barking orders.
“You don’t stand there and think: “Oh, this guy is only 30 …” You don’t think that at all. He has a confidence, he has the right ideas and he has demanded the respect of his players from an early stage.
“His background is pretty impressive. That he didn’t play at a high level has no bearing on his ability to be a great coach. And I think he will be great. When he came into the dressing room for that first time to address the team, there was a presence about him. There was a confidence about him, a swagger, a belief that he was the right guy for the job – and that his ideas, his philosophies, were really going to benefit us. Over the past couple of days, it already has.
“The message he delivered to us on day one was emphasising that it’s not a situation where everything has to be blown up here. It’s not as if the coaches have been fired. So he made that clear. He said: “Look, I just want to build off what Robbie [Neilson] and Stevie [Crawford] have done for you.” Of course, there will be little changes here and there, just to get us to even a higher level. It’s been a pretty smooth transition.”
Cathro’s credentials will be tested for the first time this afternoon when Hearts travel to Ibrox to face Rangers. Having beaten them convincingly under the previous management just 10 days ago, there will be an expectation on Hearts to do similarly away from home. Kitchen, though, sounded a warning.
“Rangers are a top side and it’s going to be a tough challenge,” he added. “We expect a better Rangers side than we saw at Tynecastle. For us to match that, we’re going to have be even better than we were that night. It’s a big game with a lot on the line. We’ll be ready for it. We were decent when we beat them at Tynecastle. But we expect them to be better. We have to be able to mimic that – and even surpass it, if possible.”
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