Steven Naismith expects to find out if he’ll be made Hearts manager on a permanent basis within days.
The interim boss guided the Jambos to fourth place in the Premiership and a spot in the third qualifying round of the Europa Conference League ahead of city rivals Hibs. A final day Edinburgh derby draw was enough, although Hearts had to hold on for over an hour with ten men after Alex Cochrane’s red card. Yutaro Oda had put them ahead early, only for Kevin Nisbet to score from the free-kick that followed Cochrane’s dismissal.
Naismith had seven games in the hot seat after replacing Robbie Neilson in April. His tenure got off to the worst possible start, losing 1-0 at Easter Road in what was the club’s first derby defeat in nine games. He then oversaw the best display of the season as Ross County were demolished 6-1 at Tynecastle. Celtic clinched the title at Tynecastle with a 2-0 win. That only came after Cochrane was sent off in that game too, in a match where the hosts were well on top until going down to ten.
They came from behind away to St Mirren after being 2-0 down and snatched a last gasp draw at Ibrox in midweek - two points that proved crucial come full-time on Saturday.
Now Naismith is set to meet with club powerbrokers to learn if he’ll be handed the job full-time or will return to the coaching staff and continue to take the Hearts B team. The former Scotland international believes he's ready for management, and reckons he’s implemented a stuke that fans want to watch every week.
He’ll join up with Steve Clarke's Scotland staff for the upcoming Euro qualifiers against Norway and Georgia. And he expects to know if Hearts want him as boss before then.
"There is no exact date. I expect to be told sooner rather than later,” Naismith told the Edinburgh Evening News. “If it’s me or it’s not me, there have been seven weeks of the club having their understanding of what they want to do. If it’s someone else then that might be in their mind. They can still tell me it’s not me. I would expect it to be over the early part of the week.
“I think I’ve done a good job. I think I’m ready for management so we will see what the conversation is going to be. The club have got a good style of play under what we’ve done. I think somebody could watch the game and see what we want to do. I think you can get an idea of that.
“The morale of the squad, turning that around is a big positive. Tactical changes within the game, how to deal with situations in a game to make sure you are getting a successful result – these are all personal things for me that make me think: ‘Aye, I’m ready for it.’ I’m not going to benefit from being a coach for another year or two years, really. That’s where my mind is.”
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