Latest news with #McInnes
Daily Record
3 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Record
McInnes knowing what Hearts need was music to my ears and it should be to Shankland too
Lawrence Shakland has much to consider when it comes to his future. At least there's one thing he can be sure of. If he signs on again at Tynecastle, he's going to get a team and manager who will give him every chance to recapture his best. Derek McInnes won't have needed to tell Shankland what to expect from the Hearts team next season if he's part of it. The striker will have seen it for himself. The new boss gets it. He knows what Hearts requires and it was music to my ears hearing him identify pace in the wide areas. It should have been music to Lawrence's lugs too. Just look at the way McInnes has set up teams in the past. It's tailor-made for a Shankland. Look at the way he used Adam Rooney during the first part of his spell at Aberdeen and the way he created a set-up to utilise him to the maximum. I played against that team and it was murder when the likes of Jonny Hayes and Niall McGinn got into full flow. Those boys were a nightmare to face. They held their width and they got service into Rooney. If McInnes thought Hayes and McGinn had the beating of their full-back, they would just keep pummelling them down the flanks. But, if he thought they weren't able to get away, he had no hesitation switching their sides and then they'd come inside and make mayhem, create and score their own goals. The other thing about them is they worked their backsides off and weren't scared to stick a foot in if it was needed as well. McInnes' Aberdeen team evolved, yet the principles stayed the same. Fast and aggressive in the wide areas and, when Rooney left, not many would have given Sam Cosgrove much hope of filling the void, yet he did it brilliantly in the end. That was down to service. The likes of Gary Mackay-Steven and Scott Wright were wide guys who kept that ethos and Kilmarnock was the same. Marley Watkins and Kyle Vassell both had brilliant seasons when they qualified for Europe and got fourth place in the Premiership. And much of that was down to the incredible service provided by Matty Kennedy and Danny Armstrong. Two boys who held their width. McInnes' plan was to get the ball to those two boys as swiftly as possible and let them deliver service. Kennedy was with him at Aberdeen as well, Mackay-Steven ended up going to Rugby Park. Listen, I get accused all the time of being old-school, of talking about playing direct football but I keep saying it. It's not just booting the ball up the park, it's getting it to your attacking players quickly and letting them do damage with pace and quality. Football has disappeared up it's own a**e. I hear folk rattling on about breaking lines and all of this jargon. Players have been breaking lines since the game was invented. It's called running off the ball or committing a player by taking him on. Some coaches these days could sell cars if they didn't have jobs in the game. I'm not suggesting McInnes isn't up to speed with modern tactics because he is but he's also clearly aware there are basic traits you need. Hearts are about being fast and aggressive. Being in people's faces, running that extra yard and making that extra tackle to then let your ability speak. That's the ethos and the DNA of the club. Hard work and quality. McInnes knows this. Various areas of the pitch are going to need work and alteration but those wide positions are absolutely key. It has been sadly lacking at Hearts in recent times and Lawrence should have been the first one to complain about it. This is a guy who guarantees you goals when you deliver into the box for him, yet it felt like teams were being set up almost to deny him that. Dropping him deep and asking him to link the game. That's great – but why take away your key weapon? McInnes wants boys to hug touchlines and make the chances and this is where the Jamestown Analytics can help the gaffer identify some options. Lawrence had a 12 months to forget but I have no doubt that if he stays at Hearts, he will start scoring goals again within a McInnes team. He's going to have options, as I said. But there's a World Cup coming next summer and Scotland might be in it. It might be worth considering where you are going to get the best out of yourself for the next few months. He knows McInnes rates him. He was the one who signed him for Aberdeen and he had to watch from the bench as the likes of Rooney ran riot. The evidence is there for Lawrence that he has now got a boss who is finally going to play to his strengths again. McInnes and Shankland together can be the figureheads for Hearts really pushing on now.
Daily Record
4 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Record
Derek McInnes names the Hearts star he's admired from afar as Hibs fired firm derby warning
Neil Critchely failed to get one over the Hibees with the Jambos winning just once in the last eight capital showdowns Derek McInnes wants Hearts to be capital top dogs again and rip up the woeful recent derby record against Hibs. Former boss Neil Critchley failed to get one over the city rivals in three attempts last term – and the Jambos have won just once in the last eight showdowns. And, as a point of principle, new manager McInnes is determined to put the record straight. He said: 'The derby is obviously an attraction for any Hearts manager, the atmosphere and the whole intensity. "I'm looking forward to all the games, but the derbies are massive, I've attended loads over the years. 'And you get it, you know how important it is, and I also know how important it is for a manager to win these games as well. 'I'm looking forward to getting started and playing any team, but the Hibs games have got a bit more on it. "For the players, myself and the supporters, it's the games that we'll probably look for first when the fixtures come out.' McInnes has already got to work with deals agreed with midfielder Christian Borchgrevink, winger Alexandros Kyziridis and striker Elton Kabangu. The Jambos are also poised to sign Walsall midfielder Oisin McEntee. But the 53-year-old is looking forward to working with James Wilson, after the teenage striker's displays caught his eye when he was Killie boss. The new gaffer said: 'He's one of a few from the academy products that have come through. Credit to Naisy and Neil who played him. 'I remember a closed-door game against Naisy's team at Rugby Park a while back, the boy came on and I liked him right away. 'He's proven he's a good footballer and knows his way to goal. One of the boys who has a lot to offer.' You can get all the news you need on our dedicated Rangers and Celtic pages, and sign up to our newsletters to make sure you never miss a beat throughout the season. We're also on WhatsApp where we bring all the latest breaking news and transfer gossip directly to you phone. Join our Rangers community here and our Celtic community here. Tune in to Hotline Live every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football and listen to Record Sport's newest podcast, Game On, every Friday for your sporting fix, all in bitesize chunks.
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Sport
- Scotsman
Hearts target a new striker as transfer talks take place
EFL player and more forwards wanted at Tynecastle Sign up to our Hearts newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Hearts are targeting a new striker as part of their summer recruitment drive. New head coach Derek McInnes wants a physical and mobile goalscorer to complement forwards already contracted for next season. He is also in talks aimed at keeping captain Lawrence Shankland, who is out of contract. A loan deal for the Union Saint-Gilloise striker Elton Kabangu was converted into a permanent transfer on Wednesday when Hearts paid the Belgian club a fee in the region of £250,000 to keep him in Edinburgh. He signed a three-year contract. Teeanger James Wilson's deal runs until summer 2027 and carries an option to extend. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad McInnes is eager to keep Shankland but also wants an alternative type of centre-forward to compete with him, Kabangu and Wilson. In addition, transfer talks have taken place with the Walsall midfielder Oisin McEntee and a deal to bring the 24-year-old to Tynecastle Park is close. Hearts also held talks with targets in other positions, and already have Norwegian right-back Christian Borchgrevink and Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis signed for next season. Discussions over a quick transfer for the Kazakhstan international winger Islam Chesnokov are progressing. McInnes admitted that he would like four or five strikers as part of his first-team squad. He sees Scotland internationalist Wilson as a player who can develop further over the coming months after watching the youngster establish himself under previous Hearts managers Steven Naismith and Neil Critchley. 'He's one of a few academy products that have come through at the club,' said McInnes. 'Credit to Naisy and Neil who played him. Obviously being involved in the Scotland set-up elevates him. I remember playing a closed-door game against Naisy's team at Rugby Park a while back. The boy came on and I liked him right away. His movement is really top-class in and around the box. He works in tight spaces and he's proven that he's a good footballer. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'He can see that and he knows his way to goal. So the more goal threats you have, the better. It's getting that balance, having the right type of strikers. I want to work with four or five strikers at the top end of the pitch and everybody's got to be able to give something a wee bit different. I think James is one of the boys that's got a lot to offer.' SPFL fixtures season 2025/26 New fixtures for season 2025/26 will be released on 20 June by the Scottish Professional Football League. McInnes is eagerly anticipating his first experience of the Edinburgh derby as a manager and will be looking out for Hearts' meetings with rivals Hibs. 'It's obviously an attraction for any Hearts manager, the atmosphere and the whole intensity,' he acknowledged. 'I'm looking forward to all the games, but obviously the derbies are massive and I've attended loads over the years. You get it. You know how important it is. 'I also know how important it is for a manager to win these games as well. I'm looking forward to getting started and playing any team, but obviously the Hibs games have got a bit more on it. I think that for the players, myself and the supporters, it's the games that we'll probably look for first when the fixtures come out.'
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Sport
- Scotsman
Derek McInnes: How my Hearts team will set up, the attributes I'll demand and what I won't accept
Transfer window will help the Tynecastle manager prepare for the 2025/26 Premiership Sign up to our Hearts newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Derek McInnes expresses very specific ideas on how Hearts will play under his tutelage for anyone unclear on the matter. Most of his words will be music to the ears of supporters who frequent Tynecastle Park. There will be pace, there will be width, there will be aggression, there will be physicality, there will be a competitive edge, and there will be goals. Appointed head coach on a four-year contract last Monday, McInnes developed a definitive style of play throughout an 18-year managerial career with St Johnstone, Bristol City, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock. It helped him attract interest from Sunderland, Rangers and the Scotland national team at various points. Now he is tasked with reviving Hearts along with his coaching staff, Paul Sheerin and Alan Archibald. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Any doubts over how he will set up his team at Tynecastle are dispersed when the question is put to the 53-year-old. 'I've always liked to play with wingers. All my teams have had pace and wide players,' he says. 'I do think with the tightness of the pitch at Tynecastle, it's even more relevant and important that you have good wide players. Players that can isolate people and have that pace. 'Obviously, Lawrence Shankland is somebody I'd like to keep if we could, because you don't get 20-plus-goals-a-season strikers readily, particularly when they're Scottish. I do think having that sort of service into him will be key. Lawrence is a boy I know well, and he can manipulate an opportunity for himself. He has got talent, but he's a boy who thrives on service. 'I do think that having pace, having physicality, having intensity, having aggression is so important for a Hearts team. Playing in Scottish football, you've got to be so pragmatic. Through all the seasons, with the toughness of winters and all the rest of it, sometimes you can't always be brilliant, but you've always got to be competitive. At times, I've just got to make sure that my Hearts team is competitive in every game. 'I do think at Tynecastle, it's about having pace, good players that handle the ball, middle of the park, technical ability, and hopefully goalscorers. My best teams have always had good physicality about them, goalscorers who score 20-odd goals a season, and good wide players. That's not going to change and I think it's important we try to find those players, if they're not here already. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'At Aberdeen, I inherited a couple of really good wingers, McGinn and Hayes. But even after Jonny and Niall left, we always tried to continue that. At Kilmarnock it was something similar in terms of, I've always tried to commit to two wingers and two strikers. Basically, the reason we committed to two strikers is we didn't have the ability to sign a 20-plus-goals-a-season striker. We didn't have the resource to do that. So we decided, or I decided, that we'd work with two and then you might get your 20-odd goals from two. 'So we committed, plain and simple, to having two strikers. And the majority of the time, two wingers on the pitch. I like wingers, I like pace, I like people who can unlock teams. I think nine teams out of the league would probably come here to Tynecastle and maybe sit in and say: 'Go on, break us down.' For that, I think you need all the answers. I think wide players with pace and creativity are vital to that.' New Hearts signings and transfer targets - but McInnes has a clear message Transfer business is bubbling away nicely at Tynecastle, with Norwegian right-back Christian Borchgrevink and Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis already signed for next season. Belgian striker Elton Kabangu's loan from Union Saint-Gilloise has also been converted into a permanent deal. Several others will follow, but McInnes won't get carried away by an influx of new recruits. He will demand the highest standards from everyone. 'I don't want to come in here and shout from the hip: 'We're going to do this and we're going to do that.' I just think we've got to work confidently, quietly, under the radar,' he stresses. 'We don't need to drum things up, the fans are there. They're just waiting for it. They're just waiting for something to happen, really. We just need to get their trust and I need to earn that trust. The players need to earn that. They need to know that when they turn that every week, they've got a team who are going to compete. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We want to be brilliant every week. The Scottish league doesn't always allow that. When you're working with players, you've got to accept as a manager, you know your players aren't going to be tip-top every weekend. What they can be is committed and driven, motivated. That's the only way I work with players who are that. I'll not accept bad practice. I'll not accept lazy days. The fans need to know that when they've got a team there that represents them well. It's my intention to give them that team.' READ MORE: Scottish football club desperately appeal for help with future at risk after 132 years
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Sport
- Scotsman
Premier Sports Cup draw in full as Hearts and other SPFL clubs learn their opponents, dates and prize money
The Scottish League Cup begins on the weekend of 12/13 July Sign up to our Hearts newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The Premier Sports Cup group stage draw today paired Hearts with Dunfermline Athletic, Hamilton Academical, Dumbarton and Stirling Albion in Group E. Newly-appointed head coach Derek McInnes will make his debut in the competition in mid-July as he looks to revive the Edinburgh club. Hearts lost 2-0 away to Scottish Championship side Falkirk in the last-16 of this season's Premier Sports Cup and will be eager to make a better impact in the competition under McInnes. They have not lifted the trophy for more than 60 years since the 1962/63 season. A number of fresh signings will be in place at Tynecastle Park come the start of the new campaign as McInnes works with Jamestown Analytics to strengthen the squad in various different positions. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The group stage of the 2025/26 Scottish League Cup - sponsored by Premier Sports - begins on the weekend of 12/13 July. The rest of the section fixtures follow on 15/16 July, 19/20 July, 22/23 July and 26/27 July. Fixtures will be announced in due course along with which matches are selected for live television. Scotland's five European entrants - Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hibs and Dundee United - are not involved in the group phase of the competition. They enter at the last-16 stage in August. The remaining 37 clubs in the Scottish Professional Football League are participating alongside guest sides Bonnyrigg Rose from the Lowland League, Highland League winners Brora Rangers and Highland League runners-up Brechin City. The group phase is not regionalised following a change to the format back in 2022. The 40 teams were split into five seeding pots based on final league placings in season 2024/25. One club from each pot was drawn into each group. Eight group winners and the three best-placed runners-up progress to the last 16 on the weekend of 16/17 August. The quarter-finals are due to take place on the weekend of 20/21 September, with the semi-finals set for the weekend of 1/2 November. The Premier Sports Cup final will be staged at Hampden Park on Sunday, 14 December. Last season's tournament included record prize money and that continues for this year's edition. Clubs involved are guaranteed a minimum of £30,000. Progress to the last 16 brings in at least £60,000, and lifting the trophy secures a tidy £400,000. FULL PREMIER SPORTS CUP GROUP STAGE DRAW: GROUP A Falkirk, Queen's Park, Cove Rangers, Spartans, Brechin City GROUP B Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ross County, Partick Thistle, Queen of the South, Edinburgh City, Stranraer GROUP C Dundee, Airdrie, Alloa Athletic, Montrose, Bonnyrigg Rose GROUP D St Mirren, Ayr United, Arbroath, Annan Athletic, Forfar Athletic GROUP E Hearts, Dunfermline, Hamilton Academical, Dumbarton, Stirling Albion GROUP F St Johnstone, Raith Rovers, Inverness CT, Elgin City, East Kilbridge GROUP G Motherwell, Morton, Stenhousemuir, Peterhead, Clyde GROUP H Kilmarnock, Livingston, Kelty Hearts, East Fife, Brora Rangers READ MORE: Scottish football club desperately appeals for help with future at risk after 132 years
