Ryan stevenson fumes over one aspect of derek mcinnes' hearts unveileing

Derek McInnes may not have been p****d off about it as he sat there. But I can assure you, I most certainly was. Head coach Derek McInnes? Give that a rest right now. He’s a manager, so let

him manage Hearts. Put it this way, it’ll be absolute stupidity if they don’t. The club needed a leader, a strong presence to take the players forward, to take the fans with him and be the

figurehead of a massive footballing institution in this country. McInnes is that man. So let him be it and forget this nonsensical head coach rubbish. Seeing him sit at that podium to be

unveiled had me buzzing as a Hearts man, only for it to be kicked off like a nightmare when they’ve announced him as a head coach, I hate that. That seriously did my nut in. Del should not

change. Not one iota. He’s proven as a manager and that’s why Hearts went for him. I’m all for him having the help and all that sort of stuff, but I don’t think he should ever get away from

him being the boss, overseeing the lot. I get the way Hearts are wanting to go and I watched the interviews with him and Graeme Jones and the amount of times Jamestown was mentioned. I’m

like: I understand Jamestown and it’s a great thing and Tony Bloom is going to invest money, which is also great. But let’s just draw a line here. Let Derek come in and be manager. He’s a

manager. I’ve been saying for the last 16 months the club needed a manager and not a head coach. Some clubs need head coaches and I think it suits that club, suits their ethos. I don’t think

it suits Hearts. I did see in his interview that, when Derek was speaking, he used the word manager in a couple of phrases. Maybe that was just coincidental, but you only have to look at

what Hearts have had in the past. George Burley, manager, Jim Jeffries, manager. Derek referenced those two, funny enough, when he was speaking about teams. I could never imagine anyone

saying to Jim he was a head coach, Jim was a manager. He had that presence of walking into a room and every one of us in that squad knew he had entered. Del’s got that same presence. Neil

Critchley was a coach. There’s no right or wrong in that, but it didn't fit Hearts. I’m all for moving into the future and having Jamestown there, but I don’t want the club losing their

identity. And the identity is that Hearts have a great manager in the same way Rangers and Celtic have great managers. Brendan Rodgers is a manager. Walter Smith was a manager. Derek

McInnes is a manager. Listen, the more help you can get the better. It’s such a vast job now, trying to source players from abroad, South America, it’s impossible for one guy or three or

four in his coaching team to get a handle on everything, while trying to prepare games and prepare players that you already have. So I’m absolutely all for that, but I just don’t like the

modern era, head coach thing and, quite frankly. I don’t think it was appropriate for Derek to be labelled in such a manner. He’s a man’s man, tells it straight. I think that’s why the first

thing he’ll do is, if he hasn’t already, speak to Lawrence Shankland and get that contract situation resolved quickly because I don’t think he’ll take any crap. It’ll be either saying sign,

or don’t and we move on. Let’s get this done. That’s not what a coach does. That’s what a manager does. The football chat did thrill me. Again, it’s everything that I’ve probably been

speaking about for the last 12, 16 months, that teams on one hand should be looking forward to playing at Tynecastle because it’s an unbelievable stadium, but you should also as an away

player be thinking: Aw naw, it’s Tynecastle on Saturday. Derek understands that and understands there’s a certain criteria, a certain type of player that Hearts have to have in every

position to forge that situation and fit that mould of a team. Big, strong at the back, fast, agile. Lawrence up front scoring goals. I think people lose sight when I’m saying direct and

sort of forceful play. It doesn’t mean launching it. It’s that mentality of coming out the blocks and being up for it, aggressive and with intent. Liverpool are the best team in the world at

the moment and that’s what they do. And I think that’s the ethos of Hearts. It’s a working man’s club. There’s men, women, kids, boys, girls, everybody. Generations of working people who go

there on a match day to watch their team at Tynecastle and it just fits. That’s why I go back to the manager thing. That just fits as well. Like I said, help is necessary and will be

appreciated to an extent, but I’ll tell you something. If it hits a stage where Graeme’s saying Jamestown have given us this, we think this, we think that, I’d be pretty sure Derek would

just sack that off. It sounds all good and pretty at the moment, but he needs the final say. Don’t have Derek McInnes coaching Hearts. Let him be the Hearts manager.