Robbie Neilson's Hearts return a shock in 'barking mad' Scottish football
- Published
Neilson led Hearts to promotion to the Premiership during his first spell in charge
When word came through on Sunday that Robbie Neilson was to become the new manager of Hearts, Jambos and Dundee United fans everywhere would have been excused for thinking that Scottish football's fondness for the psychedelic had reached a new high.
From Tannadice to Tynecastle the trippiness of the story took everyone by surprise. Hearts are currently in the throes of a legal battle to put themselves back in the Premiership (while keeping Dundee United out of it) and now they've swiped their manager to boot. There are probably better examples of insult being added to injury in the game in this country but right now it's a little difficult to think of one.
The breakneck speed of Neilson's appointment was a shock on a number of levels. Firstly, Hearts do not have a recent reputation for making snappy decisions. Craig Levein's sacking as manager took an eternity and Daniel Stendel's appointment in his wake was a tortuous affair. The fact that Neilson was approached and persuaded without word of it getting out is a new departure for Hearts.
Secondly, Ann Budge made it clear last week that her first footballing priority was the capture of a new sporting director and not a new manager. "I feel I need that more quickly," she said six days ago. "I do think it's important that the sporting director and the manager are compatible and can work together, so I don't want to rush anything until I get that position filled."
'Neilson not irreplaceable for United'
The change of tactic was as unexpected as it was dramatic. United fans will be angered by all of this, but not many, if any, will see Neilson as irreplaceable. It's the disruption and the concern of making a bad call on the next manager that will cause them angst rather than the loss of Neilson himself.
They don't see him as irreplaceable. There's only one person at Tannadice who holds that mantle and that is Lawrence Shankland. You wouldn't have to travel all that far into a hotbed of United fans to find folk who will tell you that the striker, and not the manager, is the reason they won the Championship at such a canter.
And the stats are compelling. Twenty-four league goals out of a club total of 52 and the decisive goal in nine games amounting to 27 points, Shankland was the difference between a title procession and a title struggle.
Lawrence Shankland's goal helped fire Neilson's United team to promotion
The fact that he scored so often for a manager who was regularly criticised by his own supporters for being too negative in his tactics is a testament to Shankland's fantastic predatory instincts. On fairly moderate service he remained a lethal weapon.
United can see a future after Neilson so long as they get the next appointment right - or Wright. The former St Johnstone manager has been mentioned widely as a possible replacement.
There's a lot of uncertainty around that for now, but one absolute truth is that had it been Shankland departing on Sunday you'd have seen an altogether different response, a mixture of tears and tantrums. Neilson's exit didn't really evoke that kind of emotion among the United supporters.
'Hearts crave stability'
After so much turbulence and flakiness, Hearts crave strength and stability. They had Neilson until December 2016, then Ian Cathro changed it, then Craig Levein changed it, then Austin MacPhee changed it in his brief spell, then Stendel changed it again.
Whatever league he ends up in, Neilson has to bring order to the cluster shambles that Hearts have become. Given that he only turned 40 last week, he's packed a lot into his brief time as a manager.
Taking over at a post-administration Hearts, a squad had to be built - and built it was. Hearts obliterated Hibs and Rangers and won the Championship in Neilson's first season, They scored 96 goals and finished 21 points ahead of Hibs and 24 points ahead of Rangers. In his first season in the Premiership they finished third.
There was, of course, the business of the two-seater plane flying above Tynecastle on the day of a league game against Partick Thistle in early March 2016 with a trailing banner that read 'No style, no bottle, Neilson out'. Apparently it was a protest about Hearts' style of play under Neilson and their struggles to win the Edinburgh derby.
The fact that only Celtic had outscored Hearts in terms of league goals at that point in the season was apparently lost on the protestors. There was more to it than that, though. Even before the plane flew, those involved in the stunt wouldn't have been all that popular at Tynecastle, put it that way.
What is not normally mentioned is the response of the Hearts fans on the day - they roundly booed the sentiment behind the message and at the end of the game - a 1-0 victory - they chanted Neilson's name.
Hearts won four league games in a row in that spell. In the years since they've only matched that consistency once. In 30 games last season, four was their total number of league victories. The desperadoes who hired the plane and made the banner in 2016 didn't know how good they had it at the time.
Some Hearts fans hired a plane to fly a banner protesting against Neilson back in 2016
Neilson's last game in charge of Hearts was a 2-0 home win against Rangers that left them in second place in the Premiership table. They had nine shots on target that night. Rangers had one.
No style? That Rangers game was Hearts' 20th of the season in all competitions. They scored 38 goals in that run. It was late November and Callum Paterson and Jamie Walker had already scored seven apiece. Thirteen different players had scored. The football wasn't always easy on the eye, but there was a definite structure to it.
You knew what Hearts were about in those days. As a team, they had an identity. They were robust, hard-running, created chances and took their fair share. They had defensive frailties, but at their best they could overpower teams. For the longest while they haven't been able to overpower a paper bag.
Tough job in strange times for Hearts
You wonder what would have happened had Neilson stayed at Tynecastle. Would the rot still have set in? He will argue that he's a better manager for having gone to England with MK Dons. It ended in failure, but most managers fail at some stage. It's what they learn from failure that counts. Neilson is an intelligent and driven man. Those lessons will not have been lost on him.
He bounced back at United, aided massively by his freak up front. Shankland doesn't just have the talent to propel a team into the Premiership, he has the ability to revive a manager's career and win him a move back to the club he identifies with most.
Neilson owes Shankland. He'd likely sell a kidney to get him to Tynecastle. He's exactly the type of player Hearts need if they want to cast off the past and kick on to a better future. The fact is, though, it would take a few more of Neilson's vital organs and a lot of James Anderson's - and the club's other benefactors' - money to get that one across the line.
These are the strangest of times at Hearts. Budge has spoken about the gross financial hardship that will befall the club if they can't overturn the injustice done to them in the SPFL's resolution to call the leagues, but here she is shelling out compensation to get Neilson. Anderson has deep pockets, which is just as well, because his hand is never out of them these days.
Now that they've got their manager there are only a few minor issues left to resolve - the legal action to either win back their place in the Premiership or win a truckload of compensation from those who put them down, the rebuilding of a team in terms of personnel, mindset and game plan, the appointment of a sporting director who might bring some shape to a blurred recruitment policy, the re-establishment of the connection with the support that's faded amid the stress of recent times.
Apart from those trifling affairs, Hearts have it sussed. United, meanwhile, will have already moved on from Neilson. He's history now.
Who's next for them? Scottish football is barking mad and you can't rule anybody out. On social media somebody flew a kite about Levein returning to United and he has registered some interest. He won't, but experience tells us that it's the kind of thing that could happen in this theatre of the bizarre.