As Steven Naismith fell off his rollercoaster Hearts ride, the creaking din from the managerial merry-go round went into overdrive. Within minutes, the bookies odds were up and listicles primed with the five group think candidates to take the reigns. The names were familiar; the flavour of the month, the steady Eddie, the caretaker...
Two clear contenders on recent Scottish achievement, Derek McInnes of Kilmarnock and Steven Robinson of St Mirren were immediately part of the discussion. And understandably so on the face of it. McInnes has been a very effective manager at two top flight clubs and plays an aggressive brand of football that fits with Hearts' 'up and at em' traditions. Nobody would relish a trip to Gorgie with him at the helm. Despite a tough spell recently where he's won only two of the last 17 games, he remains a credible candidate.
Stephen Robinson can point to excellent work at Motherwell and now St Mirren. He's shown he can coach different styles of teams, develop youngsters and has an eye for a player. He's at a good age and his record certainly suggests ticks many of the boxes for a manager deserving looking to move to a bigger club.
And yet, you can understand why Hearts fans want to see something completely new. After Craig Levein, Robbie Neilson and Steven Naismith another from a similar ideological shelf probably doesn't inspire much excitement.
The other recent Hearts manager not mentioned, the German Daniel Stendel, was only in place for a short spell that ended in the farce of relegation before the season could even be completed but there was an fission of electricity generated by his appointment that reflected supporters' hunger for a fresh perspective.
And there's another issue. For all McInnes and Robinson seem likely to offer stability and competence, you'd have to question if either would be truly comfortable with the reality of Hearts structure. Both have the run of their clubs, including significant control over scouting and recruitment. They are traditional managers in an era where the elite have moved on from centralized power. At Hearts, they no longer want to offer a single individual total control - that's why hired a sporting director in Graeme Jones.
McInnes in particular has never given much indication he'd be comfortable with working with someone overseeing his work in the football department and you have to wonder if he'd even be interested in giving up the level of autonomy he enjoys at Killie.
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And from Hearts' point of view, why take on someone who has always worked in a different way? While McInnes and Robinson are successful, they operate in completely different environments. Surely the appointment of a coach who can be slotted in seamlessly is the common sense option?
And that's where Tony Bloom and his £10m Starlizard investment comes in. With the Jambo's suddenly privy to the secrets market leading data can offer, they understand it's a big world out there. Or perhaps poker player Bloom has offered a simple question - what are the chances that the best football coach available on the entire planet works 70 minutes along the M8?
While Scottish football is idiosyncratic, it's not beyond the ken of man to grasp it's peculiarities. Surely the domination enjoyed by Ange Postecoglou, whose experience wasn't even on the European continent, has put that all to bed once and for all. The Spurs boss had his ups and downs on arrival but quickly sussed out what was needed.
Similarly, Jimmy Thelin is just in the door at Aberdeen but looks an excellent acquisition after a difficult series of hires. Dave Cormack had previously suffered after he was bounced into appointing the previous permanent manager Barry Robson after a brilliant caretaker spell. There were few that argued with the logic of that hire at the time, even if there were fewer still who thought it would work long term.
It's to Hearts' perennially impressive CEO Andrew McKinlay's credit they have avoided the same pitfall by making it crystal clear they will not even countenance falling into the same trap with interim boss Liam Fox. He said of the B team coach: "He is aware that we are looking externally for the longer term and he fully understands that and appreciates the reasons why we’re doing that. I have the utmost respect for Liam, I think he’s a very good football coach and I think he’ll do well for us for as long as he’s in this role."
And while money is always welcome at a football club, the opportunity to access revelatory data could be even more important. Bloom's involvement has transformed English club Brighton from a long-shot project to one of the most exciting clubs in European football, a trajectory driven by outstanding recruitment of both players and mangers.
Amid all this, it's hard to imagine Bloom's data will point to someone on the Scottish merry-go-round. It seems much more likely a smart continental coach whose focus is on the tactical mastery of the modern game. For Hearts to develop further it seems less about stepping aboard the merry-go-round and more about breaking that particular wheel. It will be fascinating to see what comes next. Hearts fans should strap in.
