HEARTS made it perfectly clear to John McGlynn that he would be getting their manager's job in a time of cuts, but he didn't think that included the electricity.

He was going through the duties which come with being presented as manager yesterday when the Tynecastle media room suddenly went dark, the result of what would become a powerless few minutes. Normal service was soon resumed but the symbolism was comical: McGlynn had become manager in a time of obvious austerity.

All things are relative, of course. The resources available to him are far superior to those he had in five and a half-years in charge of Raith Rovers, and a club which powered its way to victory in the Scottish Cup final last month are hardly impoverished, regardless of £24 million of debt. Many of the 25,000 Jambos whose natural high had them floating out of Hampden – having witnessed the mauling of Hibernian – will not find it easy to dampen their expectations for the coming season. Sure, manager Paulo Sergio, midfielder Ian Black and strikers Stephen Elliott and Craig Beattie are gone, and Rudi Skacel is likely to follow, but there is another significant departure: Rangers. Heart of Midlothian supporters will instinctively regard their club as the one which should do most to challenge Celtic.

Publicly agreeing with them, while hammering home the message that the club will be developing more players than it signs for the foreseeable future, will be the theme of McGlynn's opening months. "I hear talk of the league title race being finished in November next season [because of Celtic's expected domination]," he said. "That would be sad. It's definitely up to us to make sure that's not the case. It's up to all of us in the league.

"The Hearts I know would always be targeting a third-place finish in the SPL and a Scottish Cup run. Now that Rangers are not going to be there I can understand people saying we should be going for second place. It's not a formality by any manner of means, because Hearts are now going down a different route financially. But at the same time, I stress we are not going to accept mediocrity.

"I think it's getting a wee bit carried away to say we could challenge for the title, but you never know. If we give these young players their place and they grasp it, then maybe Celtic will get complacent. If Celtic were to play a particular team on a particular day and their attitude wasn't right, then you've got a chance of beating them. If it happened over a period of time, who knows?

"We need to try to raise the bar, push and succeed. There have to be realistic targets but supporters are not stupid. If you lose Ian Black, Craig Beattie and perhaps Rudi Skacel, supporters realise it will take time to get things right."

Hearts have landed themselves a diligent, eager, low-key manager, who did so well with Raith that he was named the 2011 PFA Scotland manager of the year. They finished seventh last season but severe budget cuts contributed hugely to their fall from being runners-up in the previous campaign.

McGlynn has Hearts DNA, having spent a decade there – including stints as caretaker manager when John Robertson and George Burley left – until leaving in 2006 to manage Raith. The fixtures and fittings look the same on his return to Tynecastle but much has changed. Yesterday he trotted off the names who filled the team when he was last there: Craig Gordon, Steven Pressley, Paul Hartley, Edgaras Jankauskas, Roman Bednar, Michal Pospisil, Takis Fyssas, Andy Webster and Skacel. The latter pair are still there, for now at least, but in general the standard is down. McGlynn was appointed on the back of his excellent record in youth development. "We are having to go down a different route this time, bringing in younger players," he said. "Hearts have an excellent academy facility and we should maybe be bringing through even more young players than we do.

"That's where I have to work with the younger players now, while still keeping a backbone of experienced players. We've still got Andy Webster, Marius Zaliukas, Jamie Hamill and Danny Grainger who are more experienced and will be invaluable to the younger players. John Sutton will come back into the frame as well. So it's not as if I'm just going to throw all of the under-19 boys into the first team.

"The standards here cannot drop and the aspirations have to be to aim high. Motherwell had a great season last year. With the greatest of respect, we should be able to compete with them and the other clubs at the top end of the table. Scottish football is in a transitional period and everyone is having to cut back financially. Hearts are certainly doing that, which gives the young players an opportunity, but I'm still targeting high."

An offer has been made to Jankauskas to return as McGlynn's assistant. Inevitably that would lead to suspicion that the Lithuanian would be there to act as Vladimir Romanov's eyes and ears, but McGlynn seemed unperturbed. Gary Locke and Darren Murray, Hearts men he knows well, will remain on the coaching staff.

"I'm not coming into the job with my eyes closed, I realise that. We had many challenges at Raith Rovers that we had to overcome and I ended up being the second longest manager at Raith Rovers in history. I'm not really putting myself up for being the second longest-serving Hearts manager - but I'll certainly rise to the challenge."