SPECIAL REPORT: A sour ending at Killie ... but future could be sweet for Derek McInnes with Hearts

Daily Mail​

16-05-2025

When the Kilmarnock players arrived at Rugby Park on Thursday morning for a recovery session, Derek McInnes was already in the process of clearing his desk and saying his farewells.
Just over 12 hours had passed since McInnes addressed his players in the away dressing room at Fir Park on Wednesday night and told them he would no longer continue as manager after a 3-0 defeat at Motherwell.
It was now merely a case of gathering his belongings and saying goodbye to the staff with whom he has enjoyed a positive working relationship over the past three-and-a-half years.
McInnes could have called it quits and stayed at home on Thursday morning, but he felt it was important to show face one last time and bid adieu to everyone around the stadium before he joins Hearts at the end of the season.
Just a few hours later, as the sun shone down, he was filmed driving away from Rugby Park along with his assistants Paul Sheerin and Alan Archibald. Their time at Kilmarnock was officially over.
How did it all come to this? Why was one of the club's best managers in recent times, a manager who led them from Championship obscurity into Europe, effectively left to slink out the back door?
Watching McInnes and his staff carry boxes of their belongings out to the car park, it had the look of a sacking rather than an amicable departure. The only thing missing was a black bin liner.
When McInnes held a media conference on Tuesday, he declared his intention to take charge of Killie for the final two games of the season, firstly at Motherwell and then at home against his prospective employers Hearts tomorrow.
In his mind, after three wins on the bounce had secured Premiership survival, he wanted to finish the season with five straight victories. McInnes viewed that as a good high on which to finish.
However, the fact that terms had already been agreed for him to move to Tynecastle meant that his presence in the Kilmarnock dugout was never really a viable proposition. Especially so after a section of fans turned on him at Motherwell on Wednesday night. The atmosphere at Rugby Park tomorrow would have been toxic had he remained in post.
There was a broad agreement reached among McInnes, owner Billy Bowie and the club directors that his position had simply become untenable, despite his best intentions to end the season with Killie.
In the eyes of some supporters, McInnes hasn't covered himself in glory over the past 10 days or so since it became known that Hearts wanted him as their next manager.
In particular, an appearance as a pundit on Sky Sports last Sunday for the Rangers-Aberdeen match at Ibrox rubbed fans up the wrong way.
It was not simply because he chose to appear on the show after shirking media duties with Kilmarnock a few days earlier prior to their match against Dundee.
But the fact that McInnes sat in the studio and allowed Kris Boyd to champion him for the Hearts job, insisting that he deserved a crack at a 'big club'.
In all fairness, Boyd probably didn't do McInnes any favours. However, McInnes didn't really do anything to stop the conversation or play it down, and that wasn't a great look in the circumstances.
Sky Sports normally book their pundits a couple of weeks in advance. McInnes had committed to it long before the interest from Hearts came along.
But he could have managed the whole thing better. Killie fans felt it was disrespectful, hence why the anger and vitriol spilled over at Fir Park on Wednesday night.
Truth be told, there was a feeling that the McInnes-Killie partnership had run its course in any case. A growing number of fans felt things had stagnated over recent months, hence why few will shed a tear at his departure.
And yet, for all the optics around the appearance on Sky weren't great, it is unfair for McInnes to be painted as the villain of the piece in all of this.
Perhaps his greatest crime in this whole episode was to be naive enough to think it would be acceptable for him to remain in charge for Kilmarnock's final two matches of the season.
If the final game hadn't been against Hearts, it may well have been fine. Given the good work he has done at Killie, there may have been enough goodwill remaining to afford him a decent send-off.
Armed with the investment of Tony Bloom, above, and the club's new data-led approach, McInnes will be expected to take Hearts to the next level
But the fact that McInnes would have been taking Killie into a match against his new club meant it always looked like a non-starter.
It's Hearts who have completely botched the handling of this. What ought to have been a simple recruitment process, had it been dealt with at the end of the season, has instead turned into a debacle.
There was no need for Hearts to go public with their pursuit of McInnes with only a few games of the season remaining.
It could have waited until next week, when the season was finished, and the clubs could have discussed terms and agreed on a compensation package.
The Tynecastle club chose to push ahead while the season was ongoing - with a game against Killie on the immediate horizon - and put McInnes in an incredibly awkward position.
The way Hearts have handled it all has looked a bit amateurish, particularly given the fact that Ann Budge is on holiday at the moment and is unable to approve anything until she returns over the next few days.
Although she has stepped back in recent years, anyone who believes that she doesn't still have serious influence in football decisions at Hearts clearly isn't paying attention.
However, this clumsy pursuit of McInnes looks poor for the club.
He made his mark at Rugby Park, taking the club back to the top flight from the Championship and into Europe
McInnes will go into Tynecastle with his eyes open. Over the past few years, there has been a glaring lack of leadership at the top of the club.
He will change that and seek to take charge of football matters as much as he can, with the investment of Tony Bloom set to be rubber-stamped over the next couple of weeks.
Normally a very hands-on manager, how McInnes integrates with the data-driven approach to recruitment will be key to success at Tynecastle.
A few months after McInnes had taken charge at Kilmarnock, he appointed Russ Richardson as the club's new head of recruitment.
A scout whom he trusted implicitly, McInnes and Richardson had worked previously together at Aberdeen and had unearthed hidden gems like James Maddison and Sam Cosgrove.
With the Jamestown data boffins crunching the numbers in the background, it is unlikely that he will be granted the same level of autonomy over recruitment at Hearts.
Nonetheless, there is an argument that this represents the biggest chance of McInnes' career. To manage a club of Hearts' stature, and with fresh investment on the table, it's a brilliant opportunity.
Bloom is set to invest just shy of £10million into the Gorgie club. Not all of that will be immediately invested in the playing squad, but next season's budget is still expected to be increased considerably.
It won't be enough for McInnes to simply steady the ship at Tynecastle. Armed with Bloom's millions and the Jamestown analytics algorithm, he will be expected to take the club to the next level.
He will need to show a willingness to adapt and evolve as the club seek a more modern approach both on and off the pitch.
Set to be formally unveiled early next week, the fact he leaves Killie with a slightly sour taste in the mouth will be a mere footnote as he begins a new chapter in Edinburgh.