Graeme McGarry: Minds could be broadened, but is Scottish football really xenophobic?

So it was on Wednesday evening, where Stendel’s energetic promptings from the Hearts dugout directly in front of me were at least as entertaining as the game. Perhaps more so.

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He leapt, he remonstrated, he implored the heavens on more than one occasion as passes went astray or a ball ricocheted off a maroon shin as one of his players attempted to control the ball. There’s no truth in the cruel rumour that his GPS stats surpassed those of Christophe Berra on the night, but he must have been shattered by the end in any case.

After the match, he spoke well about the grit displayed by his team, and of brighter days to come. My overwhelming personal impression of him was positive. He is clearly all-in as he looks to turn around a giant that was sleepwalking towards disaster.

Whether he is able to turn the ship around in time to avoid the iceberg of relegation remains to be seen, but one thing seems sure; it won’t be dull at Tynecastle under his watch.

There were some reservations from elsewhere in the media about Stendel’s performance at his unveiling last week though, and Hearts supporters were quick to label those concerns – latching on to a description of his appearance as ‘unkempt’ - as entirely in-keeping with the xenophobic attitudes prevalent throughout the Scottish press towards foreign coaches.

The accusation which followed is that the press plays its part in not only fostering such an environment, but actively promotes it.

For me, the reluctance to embrace new ideas or someone who offers something a little bit different to the norm does hold Scottish football back somewhat, but that comes from inside the game as much as it does from observers on the periphery.

Witness for example the rebellion inside the Rangers dressing room when Paul Le Guen banned Monster Munch. Captain Barry Ferguson later detailed how his problem with the manager was more about the dropping of standards when it came to accepting defeat, rather than a maize-based savoury snack, but the point wasn’t made without commenting that he was glad to get back to his Pickled Onion crisps once the Frenchman had gone.

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It was the same at Celtic when Ronny Deila banned chips. Professional athletes going without chips? Heaven forfend. Pizza crunch will be the next thing off the menu if these foreign types have their way.

On a more serious note, Deila may have ended up leaving with something of a damaged reputation, but any criticism in the press (with whom, by the way, he had an excellent relationship) were based upon his failings as a coach, rather than the fact he didn’t do his badges at Largs.

Pedro Caixinha spoke in headlines and the press guys loved him. But any honest assessment of his abilities as a coach were rightly critical. He won 14 of 26 games as Rangers manager. He lost to Progres Niederkorn, perhaps the worst result in his club’s history. His team were then spectacularly bullied out of the League Cup by Motherwell. It had nothing to do with him being Portuguese.

If stories coming out of Kilmarnock this week are to be believed, such problems still exist for foreign coaches. Kirk Broadfoot slaughtered Angelo Alessio’s training methods after leaving the club in the summer, and it seems the rest of the dressing room shared his reluctance to embrace an emphasis on team shape over fitness. The final straw appears to have been Alessio’s choice to speak Italian in front of the players in the dressing room to his assistant Massimo Donati.

But for every foreign coach who has been chased out of town, you could name a Scottish manager who has had similar treatment. It may be Newton’s Third Law, but it is Scottish football’s first; for every Berti Vogts there is an equal yet opposite George Burley.

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Ian Cathro is the obvious example. Seen as an ‘outsider’ from the start having not played the professional game, his tenure at Hearts was nonetheless an abject failure. You can argue whether or not he was given a chance by the press, but it is the players who really matter, and they weren’t performing for him.

Scottish football as a whole - players, press and fans - could probably do with broadening our horizons a little and being more prepared to welcome outside influences. As entertaining as the Scottish game can be, our current approach has hardly reaped huge benefits for our teams on the European or international stage over the last two decades, after all.

Still, it is also an easy get out for sub-standard foreign coaches to point to criticism as simply being the result of deep-rooted xenophobia. Your reign at any club will be judged on its merits, whether your name is Jo Venglos or John Hughes.

As for Stendel, the jury remains out. But anyone who thinks the executioners are already sharpening their pens are wide of the mark.