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Scotsman
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Scotsman
John McGlynn talks on Hearts job as manager changes are laid out
Watch more of our videos on and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565 Visit Shots! now The Tynecastle hierarchy are seeking a new head coach 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... Falkirk manager John McGlynn stressed that any interest from Hearts is purely hypothetical after winning Scotland's Manager of the Year award. Having secured the Championship title and promotion to the Premiership following a 15-year wait for his club on Friday evening, McGlynn was voted PFA Scotland Manager of the Year on Sunday to crown a memorable weekend. It is the third time the 63-year-old has won the award, but he remained coy on talk that he is a contender for the managerial vacancy at Hearts. The Edinburgh News understands that he was an early candidate but that his chances of the job have since reduced. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It was mentioned the last time as well. It's hypothetical. I've not been asked,' said McGlynn. 'I'm contracted to Falkirk. If someone at Hearts thinks I should be their manager then they need to speak to the club and the club will talk to me, and then we'll see. Again, it's hypothetical, because I know your next question is going to be 'What if?'' McGlynn managed Hearts from June 2012 until February 2013 during a period when club finances were shambolic under then-owner Vladimir Romanov. He was sacked for poor results but is a much-changed coach now after overhauling his approach. He explained the circumstances under which he had to work last time at Tynecastle Park. Hearts 5-1 Hibs and the cash crisis under Vladimir Romanov 'Hearts won the Scottish Cup 5-1 against Hibs. I'm now given the Hearts job,' he recalled. 'Every player went who was out of contract. There was no money. My brief was to put young players in. I did. I put Callum Paterson in, guys like Dale Carrick and others. It was a very difficult time. We had a transfer embargo. We could only sign players who were under-21, and we had to get one player out to get one player in. It was a very difficult time. 'I'm sure you guys will have listened to the Romanov thing [BBC podcast]. I've not because I was obviously part of it and know a fair amount of what went on. It was a very difficult time, and we got injuries. Marius Zaliukas, a big player for us, he was out injured, guys like Callum Paterson were out injured. We actually got to the League Cup final, which wasn't a bad thing. Our league position wasn't good, I understand that, it wasn't good, but that's what kind of killed me in the end. But I thought we actually did quite well. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We got Liverpool [in the Europa League play-off] and drew, and got beat 2-1 on aggregate. We go to Anfield and go ahead with not a lot of time to go. It wasn't all bad. The league position wasn't great. We were never going down because Dundee were getting relegated and there weren't any play-offs at that point in time. 'After that, I was out of work for a few months. I got the Livingston job, my brief was to keep them up, they were bottom of the Championship, which we did. We got them to the Petrofac Cup, the equivalent of the Challenge Cup, which they won, but before I got to manage that I'd moved on and went to Celtic. Celtic lessons and Liverpool Europa League tie at Anfield 'I learned a lot at Celtic. Initially, for the first 18 months, I was working in recruitment with John Park and the recruitment group. Ronny Deila and John Collins were the manager and assistant manager. They were good to work with. Then Brendan [Rodgers] came in. There was a little bit of connection because of Hearts and Liverpool. He was managing Liverpool at the time [when McGlynn came up against him with Hearts]. He wanted me to look at the opposition which was a great job, an amazing job, to learn from him - but not only to learn from him. 'I was domestic and European, so I'm watching Man Citys, I'm watching Barcelonas, I'm watching PSGs, I'm watching the whole lot. And on a daily basis, I'm watching the Celtic players training. I was never on the training pitch. Never ever. It was an office job. I could look and see what they were doing. I was in meetings with Brendan, I understand what he looks for, and I see the way the team can play. You would've have been stupid not to learn. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I learned so much, and I've managed to put that into the teams I've worked with since. I know that, at Raith Rovers, people were loving what they were watching. We were a little bit unlucky. We won Challenge Cups, we were very close, we did a really good job, they dilly-dallied around a new contract. Falkirk came to us, seemed enthusiastic for us, and the rest is history.' McGlynn is the first manager ever to win Scotland's Manager of the Year award three times. He previously took the trophy in 2010/11 whilst in charge at Raith Rovers, and 2023/24 after guiding Falkirk to promotion from League One without losing a match. 'It's incredible, actually. To be the first person to win three of these things for the first time is absolutely amazing,' he said. 'It takes your breath away to be honest with you. All the managers, great managers, that have worked in Scotland - how can I have three of these? It's crazy, but I obviously must be getting something right because people like what I do. My fellow peers think that I'm doing a good job and they respect me and vote for me. I can only thank them enormously and everyone that's voted for me. 'Our style is good. I think people like to see attractive attacking football. I've done it at two clubs. We were very close [to promotion] with Raith Rovers a few years back, getting to the play-off semi-final against Dundee. We were second in the league with two games to go, and Dundee beat us. We managed to beat Dunfermline in the quarter-final of the play-off, and we lost to Dundee before Dundee went on to beat Kilmarnock, so we were very close that year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I'm very very privileged and honoured to be here as a Falkirk manager who's just gone into the Premiership. A massive thank you to Paul Smith, my assistant manager, all the backroom staff, all the players, the fans for their backing, and the directors for backing us in January. Everything has just come together. Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Hibs, Dundee United, Dundee and Motherwell all lie in wait 'I think the big thing being that Falkirk fans, for the first time in 15 years, are going to be going to Celtic Park, Ibrox, Tynecastle, Easter Road, Tannadice, Dens Park, Fir Park - all these places they haven't been for the past 15 years other than the odd cup tie here and there. To be going there, I'm sure is going to really whet their appetite.' McGlynn is basking in the satisfaction of his greatest season in football. 'It has to. To do back to back, to win League One and win the Championship, there's no doubt about that at all,' he said. 'Although we had the belief and the ambition to do it, you have to actually do it. We felt we could, honestly, I'm not joking. Ipswich did it - they went League One, Championship, and got to the Premier League. At the start of the season we said: 'Let's do an Ipswich.' I don't want to do what Ipswich have done now, right enough, and go straight back down again! But we've managed to do what they did. So there was a belief we could do it. 'The momentum we had from the previous season after the invincible, the guys coming back, they went to Ibiza as they will do now. It was a great team bonding. They probably made some pact among themselves that they were going to do well this year. You get a start, as you've got to do in any league campaign, we got a middle, and we got a little bit jittery towards the end and we got over the line. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'To win a league you need a good start, a good middle and a good end. We got two thirds of that and we've managed to creep over the line. We'd like to have been flying over the line. We were in a position to do that, a little bit jittery and we've managed to creep over the line. We'll forget about the jitters and just be happy we're there.' Falkirk in Europe at the end of season 2025/26? One long-term plan is to bring European football back to Falkirk. McGlynn's attacking style of play harnesses confidence that it can be achieved. 'I'm sure there are a lot of Falkirk fans talking like that because you see the style of football we play. Sometimes you get some of the [Premiership] games on TV and think: 'That wasn't particularly attractive.' Anything can happen to us next season, I've got so much respect for everyone working in the Premiership. I think we'll be a good addition, I think that's a little bit ambitious, but you never know. We will come back in pre season round about 13 June and we'll take it and plan from there.' McGlynn admitted he is struggling to take in the events of the last few days, which is a culmination of three years' hard work at the Falkirk Stadium. 'It's a great feeling, of course it is, yeah. It's probably not really sunk in yet,' he said. 'It may be in 10 years from now when you're wandering along the street, you may take in exactly what you've achieved here rather than at the moment. 'People like us knew very quickly that the infrastructure needs to get better. We started that on Tuesday. We need to get a little bit more physicality, a little bit more experience in the team. That starts Tuesday. It's actually been started but we can go and fast-forward it. You're not very long thinking about that. It's the next phase now. The guys can go to Ibiza, and we'll start planning. The planning has been there, but we've not pushed the buttons. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Anything could have happened on Friday night and we'd have been back in the Championship and we'd have to get on with it, or even be in the play-offs. Now we can go ahead with certainty, we know where we're going to be. We're going to need a few players to come in and support the players we've got. Basically, every player outside Falkirk, and by that I mean the loan players, will go back. Everyone else has signed for next season and we need to add five or six players to that group to be a force in the Premiership. Premiership prize money will run into millions of pounds for the Bairns 'We need the club to be stabilised with finance. The club is in a good position right now, can we make it better with the infrastructure? Thats the next phase. We've got to where we are right now quicker than expected, so we're ahead of schedule. You guys might know, but off the top of my ahead, Falkirk would've got something like £170,000 or £180,000 for winning League One. We're going to get something like £1.8m for being relegated out of the Premiership. 'If we get relegated, we'll have made £1.8m, so if we stay in that, we'll get upwards of £1.8m, so five years in League One would have been very difficult for Falkirk. Money obviously helps, as you all know, so if we can stabilise, that then can go into more infrastructure, giving the players that are doing particularly well new contracts, extending contracts, and rewarding them - or bringing players in to perhaps get the club into Europe. You have to have that ambition of what you can go and achieve, but it's a very difficult league.' READ MORE: Next Hearts manager names revealed
Daily Mail
28-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
So, why are the blundering Hearts board so bad at choosing managers?
It's now almost 11 years since Hearts exited administration and finally turned the page on the ruinous Vladimir Romanov regime. The construction of a magnificent new main stand has enhanced Tynecastle's reputation as one of the finest stadiums in the land. Each month, money continues to cascade into the club's bank account from the Foundation of Hearts, the supporters' body which is now the Edinburgh institution's majority shareholder. With a wealthy benefactor in James Anderson also on board, Hearts are in a position off the field which is the envy of so many of their rivals. It's the remarkable inability, though, of those at the helm to identify the right person to fill the most important role at the club which has ensured the whole is never greater than the sum of the parts. Neil Critchley's dismissal after Saturday's dismal home defeat to Dundee was just the latest underwhelming episode to underscore that point. Like Ian Cathro, Craig Levein, Daniel Stendel and Steven Naismith, the Englishman's appointment was met with no little scepticism. After seven months at the helm, his departure felt predictable from the moment the team failed to make the top-six. The matter will do little to instil confidence among the rank and file that those tasked with identifying his successor will get the next one right. When the axe fell on Naismith in October after he presided over the club's worst ever start to a campaign, the name of the lips of fans was Per-Mathias Hogmo. The former Norway boss looked to be a hand-in-glove fit. Vastly experienced, he'd managed clubs including Tromso, Rosenborg and Hacken. Talks were said to be positive yet ended without a deal being struck. While Hearts were adamant Hogmo was never their first-choice, he would have been seen as quite a coup. Having just taken charge of Molde, he's no longer on the shelf. While the attraction of hiring the 65-year-old was obvious, the same simply could not be said of Critchley. When his name first surfaced as a live contender for the role, for the majority of supporters, it necessitated a quick online search. The former Liverpool youth coach's starring moment came when he guided Blackpool to the English Championship via the play-offs in 2021. Since then, though, a switch to Queens Park Rangers ended in a sacking, as did his return to the Seasiders. For Hearts fans, the appointment required a huge leap of faith. Critchley's name was floated by Jamestown Analytics, the data company owned by Tony Bloom which had been instrumental in returning Brighton to the Premier League. Evidently, Jamestown has flagged up something in the Englishman's record and background that others had failed to identify. Andrew McKinlay, the club's CEO, claimed he was 'very confident' Critchley would deliver in this 'new chapter for the club'. Many supporters remained to be convinced. It started brightly enough. Critchley presided over a comprehensive win against St Mirren in his first game and followed it up with a victory over Omonia in the Conference League. But it was to be a false dawn. In Hearts' next 14 league games, they recorded just three victories. And the alarm bells truly began to sound on the night when minnows Petrocub came to town. One of the poorest European sides ever to play in Gorgie, the Moldovans somehow denied Hearts the win which would have taken them through to the knock-out round after Christmas. Damningly, Petrocub finished in last place in the 36-team mono group. Critchley then began to get a reputation as a manager who could not win a big game. His side lost to Celtic and Rangers before being defeated at home by Hibs on Boxing Day. Three days later, Hearts surrendered a two-goal lead at Ross County in the closing five minutes. At the start of February, it finally looked like everything was clicking into place. Critchley's men scored six without reply at Dundee then squeezed past St Mirren on penalties to progress in the Scottish Cup. But the optimism was again short-lived. Another defeat to a resurgent Hibs at Easter Road left Hearts scrambling to make the top-six and intensified the pressure on the manager. The Tynecastle side's season simply imploded in less than a month. Defeats to Celtic and Dundee United came before a listless draw at Motherwell confirmed they would finish in the bottom six. After their nine-men lost to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final, Hearts issued a statement bemoaning refereeing decisions. It was a classic act of deflection. The only real surprise was that Critchley was given as long as the Dundee game. That loss leaves Hearts just five points above 11th-placed Ross County with four games to play. Liam Fox will again take interim charge of the side for the weekend's crucial clash in Dingwall. On a run of five straight defeats, County do not have their troubles to seek but they are accustomed to this territory. Critchley was certainly unfortunate in one sense. His tenure was pockmarked by serious injuries to key players including Frankie Kent, Stephen Kingsley and Craig Halkett. Lawrence Shankland's dramatic loss in form this term also did him no favours. But he was hardly alone in facing such challenges. It's literally the job of a football manager to find solutions. Far too often, he was found wanting. His departure might just release the intense pressure which been building around the club in recent weeks. A couple of wins from their remaining four matches should not be beyond the reach of a squad which has talent but rarely seemed sure of what was being demanded of them this term. Aided again by Jamestown's data, McKinlay and director of football Graeme Jones will now start the hunt for Critchley's successor with the aim of making the appointment in good time for the start of pre-season training. They'd better get this one right. A club which has impressively rebuilt itself in so many ways since the dark days of insolvency can't continue to trip itself up when it comes to the most vital matter of all.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kremlin-linked outlet posts and deletes footage of drone strike coordinated from Moscow
Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency RIA Novosti posted – and later removed – a video showing Russian drones striking Ukraine, operated from the Moscow International Business Centre, also known as Moscow-City. Source: The Insider, a Russian news outlet Details: On the morning of 15 April, RIA Novosti posted two messages on its Telegram channel suggesting that operators of military drones targeting Ukrainian territory were based in a tower at the Moscow-City business centre. The first post noted that "for the first time, a first-person view loitering munition controlled from Moscow struck a Ukrainian Armed Forces asset in Chasiv Yar at an extremely long range". The second post reported that the drone, operated from the Russian capital, had been prepared for deployment by a drone crew from the Espanola brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, stationed near Chasiv Yar in the Bakhmut district of Donetsk Oblast. A Russian drone being operated from the Moscow-City centre Photo: Screenshot A six-minute video showing the coordination process had also been posted. Both posts were deleted within an hour and a half, with the removal first noted by the CTD Telegram channel. "The commander hit the target while sitting in the Moscow-City," said one of the operation participants after the explosion was shown. "The operator feels safe and does not experience any psychological pressure," another individual in the video explains the advantages of remote drone control. A Russian drone being operated from the Moscow-City centre Photo: Screenshot The Telegram channel operated by the Espanola brigade reports that the drone was piloted by the brigade commander, Stanislav Orlov. While staying "in a rented apartment in the Moscow-City, he successfully hit a target near Chasiv Yar with an Ovod drone". The post notes that "when using the Orbita software and hardware package, the operator can be located anywhere. In our experiment, the Moscow-City was simply an easily recognisable location." The RIA Novosti report has sparked debate among pro-war Russian bloggers. "Did I understand correctly that after this video, if a kamikaze UAV flies over Moscow skyscrapers, the enemy will claim it hit the drone operators?" said military blogger Vladimir Romanov. Background: In the summer of 2023, drones actively attacked the Russian capital, particularly the Moscow-City business centre. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
BBC News
23-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Put your questions to Czar of Hearts production team
Over the past two months, BBC Scotland's Romanov: Czar of Hearts podcast has detailed the story of Hearts, Vladimir Romanov and everything in series has taken the audience on a rollercoaster ride from Romanov saving the club to almost killing you have the chance to ask host Martin Geissler and the team any questions you have about the work on the show across all 10 tracking down Romanov to anything unexpected they may have discovered, send us your questions here and a selection will be answered on this page in the coming days.
BBC News
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'My Name is Vladimir Romanov, I want to tell you my story'
"My Name is Vladimir Romanov, I want to tell you my story."Those are the surprise words that will close this week's episode of Romanov: Czar of Hearts. Last reported in the UK to be penniless and living aboard the rusted old hull of the K19 submarine, we have tracked down the Czar and interviewed him about his time at Hearts and his life. This special bonus episode will be released on Saturday March 22nd.
