'Honoured' Critchley excited by what Hearts can do this season

Neil Critchley will manage north of the border for the first time

Neil Critchley is "super excited and very honoured" to be Heart of Midlothian's new head coach and is "encouraged by what we can do this season" after one training session with the players.

The former Blackpool and Queens Park Rangers manager has signed a deal at Tynecastle that runs until the end of the 2026-27 season.

The 45-year-old succeeds Steven Naismith, who was sacked last month after a winless start to the Scottish Premiership season.

That miserable start - part of a run of eight consecutive defeats in all competitions - has left Hearts bottom of the Premiership with two points from eight fixtures.

But Critchley, who will be assisted by former Liverpool academy, Blackpool, Lincoln City and QPR coach Mike Garrity, is upbeat about the rest of the campaign.

"From seeing them this morning, I was more encouraged than I was beforehand," he said.

"I watched all the games because I've had a little bit of time on my hands, but it's always good to see the players first hand. Getting to know them, speaking to them and seeing them in training.

"There was a good energy, good vibe about the group. From what I've seen, I'm encouraged by what we can still try and do this season."

The Englishman managed Blackpool between 2020 and 2022 then returned to the Lancashire club in 2023 after a three-month spell in charge of QPR.

Critchley, who took the Seasiders up to the Championship in England via the play-offs in 2021, has won 77 and drawn 47 of his 185 games as a manager.

He coached Liverpool at under-age level and was Steven Gerrard's assistant at Aston Villa for a short spell in 2022.

Chief executive officer Andrew McKinlay refuted suggestions Critchley was the club's second choice because talks had broken down with former Norway boss Per-Mathias Hogmo.

"There was a lot of speculation and I'm not going to go into the full mechanics of the process - that's disrespectful to Neil, disrespectful to others," he said.

"The reality of any modern recruitment process is you run concurrent discussions with agents but Neil was the preferred candidate from an analytics perspective and also when we spoke to him.

"It was very clear he was the right person to work with us, Graeme Jones [incoming sporting director] and the analytics. We didn't negotiate with anyone else. There was a lot of talk but Neil was the only person we negotiated with."

McKinlay also emphasised that "the analytics only guide us" and that a key part of choosing Critchley was the sense of how he would work with Jones and himself.

He also stated Hearts' focus was on a coach who would improve their existing players the ones their new recruitment process will identify, rather than managers who have landed trophies with big budgets.

"We are about to enter into a really exciting time for the club on the analytics piece, so it would have been ridiculous for us not to use it as part of this," he said.

"It looks at managers who have improved the players they've worked with. It doesn't look at people who have better players or a bigger budget, for example. And that's what we want, someone who will improve our players.

"We have a good squad of players, but they need the right person to direct them and I think Neil will be that person."

Hearts finished third in the Scottish top flight last season and reached the semi-finals of both domestic cup competitions.

The Tynecastle side host St Mirren in the Premiership on Saturday then welcome Cypriot club Omonia Nicosia in their first home Conference League game the following Thursday.