Hearts CEO Andrew McKinlay says club ‘got it wrong’ with Neil Critchley appointment

Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay admits the club made a mistake with their managerial recruitment process and appointment last time out.

Hearts sacked Neil Critchley after six months in charge after they failed to qualify for the Premiership top six and then lost at home to Dundee to raise the prospect of a relegation fight.

They have since won their final four games under caretaker boss Liam Fox and appointed former Aberdeen and Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes as their new head coach.

Regarding the previous appointment, McKinlay told Sky Sports: “I’ll admit that we got it wrong. If anyone can stand there and say they’ve not made mistakes then I challenge them on that. The main thing is you learn from those mistakes.

“We went for a certain type of manager and Neil was a very good coach, very nice guy, but I’m not sure he quite got the club and got the demands of the club.

“We spoke to a number of people but ultimately Neil was the one we ended up with and the only one that we actually entered into serious discussions with.

“We spoke to a good number of other individuals, some of whom were named at the time, some of whom weren’t.

“The one thing I did learn from that process though – and it is much harder with foreign managers – was you’ve got to meet people face to face.

“We didn’t actually meet anyone face to face last time round. Some of that was circumstances, (sporting director) Graeme (Jones) wasn’t in the role, I was out in Azerbaijan.

“It wasn’t straightforward, we were keen to do it as quickly as possible and therefore we did it all remotely and I would never do that again.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing some of the interviews remotely, maybe the first lot, but I don’t think you should ever appoint anyone into a job like that that you haven’t sat down with face to face and that’s something that obviously we’ve done on several occasions with Derek.

“We need someone that understands the Scottish game, someone that’s managed at the top end of Scottish football, understands the demands of the Hearts support and has had success in the past. Derek is the man and I’m really looking forward to working with him.”

McKinlay expressed sympathy for Critchley and claimed he was “very unlucky in some ways”.

Hearts looked set to qualify for the knockout stages of the UEFA Conference League after a good start but a late penalty cost them victory at home to Petrocub in a final game they were expected to win.

They missed out on the top six on the final day and then had two men sent off in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup semi-finals against Aberdeen before going down to a late extra-time winner.

“Every fine margin, everything went the wrong way for us,” McKinley said. “So in some ways you’ve got to feel sorry for Neil.

“We just got to the stage where we felt we were concerned, I’ll be honest, after that Dundee game that we were going to slip into a relegation situation.

“I understand some people might think we were hasty but we just felt, a difficult decision but we just had to make it. And I think hindsight shows it was probably the right decision.”