CEO Update: Headlines

Andrew McKinlay has sat down with Hearts TV for his latest quarterly update.

 

The Chief Executive Officer covered a wide range of topics across all areas of the club, which supporters can watch on Hearts TV and YouTube.

 

In a rush? Here’s the headlines…

 

On Graeme Jones’ appointment;

 

He came in in November and the last window was difficult without a sporting director, it made it harder but we got through it and we're now into the January window which is notoriously a difficult window, but as everyone is already seeing we've hit the ground running very quickly with a lot of work going on during what was quite a difficult period on the pitch, but making sure that we were ready as soon as we could be when the January window opened.

 

Graeme's time is very much taken up by that but I think it's probably this is probably quite a good time just to re-emphasise to people that the role of the sporting director is wider than just recruitment so they effectively look after everything that goes on up at Oriam, so they're my eyes and ears up at Oriam you could say.

 

But there's no doubt at this time of year the focus is very much on recruitment so this is his first time of really having to deal with agents through a transfer window which he is thoroughly enjoying but it's been good so far and he's really getting his teeth into it so it's been great and I'm just delighted to have him on board and he's been a great addition to the team.

 

 

On future recruitment;

 

I'm pretty confident we can expect more. There's been a few names mentioned in the media, some right, some not right. I'm expecting us to do maybe one or two more in the window.

 

And again, any more than that may depend on movement the other way. But certainly expect us to do a couple more.

 

I think we do have to be cognisant of the fact that, and I've said this back in the summer, that we are carrying too big a squad. And the coach's view is we're carrying too big a squad. So far, we've brought in two and two have gone out, so we're still carrying too big a squad.

 

So ideally, we would like more to move out. But people are under contract, they don't have to move anywhere. So we'll just see how that all pans out. As I say, even if we don't get to move others, we will look at bringing a couple more in.

 

We're already planning for the summer window. In fact, we're probably already planning for next January window, but I already know what we're looking to do in the summer. And we already have lists of players in those positions that we're looking at for the summer. Now, part of that depends on levers as well, so it's never quite as straightforward as that might sound. But we're already working on summer deals as well. So that just continues and will continue right through this window and right up to the summer window.

 

 

On sensitive information being made public;

 

I think it's hugely disappointing. I mean, don't get me wrong, football is the most leaky thing you can work in. I find it incredible, some of the information that gets out there. And I think it's because people have information and it gives them a certain cachet that they can then tell someone that, look, look at this I've got.

 

And it's very difficult to work out where that comes from, especially some of it will not necessarily from within the club. There are a lot of people involved in these sorts of deals and any of whom could have leaked it or could have spoken to someone else.

 

From a journalist's perspective, I totally understand they have a job to do and they're trying to get information on who we're bringing in and who we're not bringing in. I think what happened last week, though, stepped over a line. It stepped into an area of commercially confidential information, which is unlawful to actually disclose that sort of information. And my view is that should never have been made public. The information was wrong, actually, but that's not really the point. To release something like that could cause huge detriment to the club and it's hugely disappointing.

 

 

On his relationship with Neil Critchley;

 

I have found, and I suspect it probably comes across in his interviews, that Neil is a lovely man and very likeable and very easy to get on with and I'm certainly enjoying having, I've been lucky, they've all been different but the people that I've had as the manager's head coaches since I've been here have all been people that I've enjoyed working with.

 

But Neil brings something different and he is someone I really like a lot and one thing I do understand and I'm not there is he is an exceptional football coach and I think as we get better players, he gets more time with players because he's not been able to get a huge amount of time with players because of all the mid-week games we've had. I think we're going to see the team just get better and better under Neil and what a great place to be and what a great journey I think we're going to go on with him.

 

 

On results;

 

We've had some games that I think we'll all look at that have been really disappointed. Obviously the Derby, Kilmarnock away, I suspect you might touch upon Europe in a second. I think we've all been really pleased though since the Derby how we've played. There's been two injury times that I wish we could have over again. We should be sitting here with four clean sheets and four wins, but we're not. We move on.

 

It's not just the scores, it's the manner of how we've been playing. I think everyone would acknowledge that we've looked much better. I think with some of the new signings coming in we'll get even stronger. I'm hopeful with Lawrence coming back that he will regain some of his Midas touch for the rest of the season as well.

 

 

On Europe;

 

I think we're still all pretty down about the Petrocub game. Copenhagen, I can probably understand Copenhagen. I thought Bruges was disappointing as well, to be honest. I know we missed the penalty, but even without that, I thought it wasn't our best performance. I thought we were a better team than them. Copenhagen were a decent team, so I think we took our hats off to them.

 

Petrocub, I still can't believe that really what happened that night. I thought we were miles better than them. They then scored and we just looked shell-shocked. We managed to get ourselves to 2-1, so you thought, that's fine. Then they got the penalty. A disaster, I'll be honest with you that night. That is the overwhelming feeling, but what I would say is we thought going into it that six points might get us through and seven points would definitely get us through. Couldn't be more Scottish that we ended up with seven points, but being the only one on seven points that didn't go through. That was off the back of another team scoring three goals in about 10 minutes, none of which I knew at the time because I was desperately disappointed as to what was going on in front of me.

 

I think to have had more European football beyond Christmas would have been wonderful. Having said that, let's take a view that we can now focus on the league and the Cup, and we'll aim to do as well as we can in both of them.

 

 

On fans’ protests;

 

I think my first message would be more general. We are very fortunate that we live in a country where you can protest and you're allowed to protest, so I will always uphold people's rights to protest. I have no issue with people singing sack the board either if that's what they feel. That's a common thing for football fans to sing when they're not happy with things at a club.

 

What I don't think is appropriate or should be tolerated is singing about individuals in an abusive manner or being abusive to any individuals to their face or otherwise. I just don't think that that is appropriate. It wouldn't be accepted in any other area of life and it shouldn't be accepted within football. I totally get the frustrations of the fans. We were all frustrated. You've just heard how I felt after Petrocub and other games.

 

We're all Hearts fans. We're all in this together and we all need to try and come together. But as I said at the beginning, it's people's right to protest and if they wish to do so then I'm certainly not going to criticise them or tell them that they shouldn't do it.

 

 

On off-field matters;

 

I think it's been trailed for quite a long time that this is our final year with Umbro so we will be very soon, I can't say any more than that, announcing our new technical kit supplier. I'm very excited by it and I think we're all very excited by it and I think it will be something that hopefully the fans are excited by when we announce it soon and again start of a new era for the club.

 

With regards the Tony Bloom investment, there’s not really anything more I can say about that. There are ongoing discussions, they remain very positive and I'm certainly very hopeful that we'll have something more concrete to say in the not too distant future so I don't want to say any more at the moment on that but certainly nothing negative to say, it's very positive and I believe we'll get to a good place for that hopefully very soon.