Lawrence Shankland: Interview snub after Neil Critchley exit didn’t look great

Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland regretted the way his snub to a Sky Sports interview request came across and insisted there was no intention to disrespect sacked manager Neil Critchley.

The broadcaster turned up at the club’s player of the year awards in Edinburgh on Sunday to try to get reaction from players and officials to the sacking of Critchley, who lost his job less than 24 hours previously.

Everyone at Hearts was under orders not to speak to media, but the response of chairwoman Ann Budge and striker Shankland in particular riled some supporters.

Budge laughed while saying “sorry, that was yesterday’s news, I’m going in here now”, and Shankland appeared to smile uncomfortably while ignoring a couple of questions about Critchley and whether the squad had let him down.

“Obviously, the situation wasn’t ideal, it being the night after the manager lost his job,” said Shankland as he faced the media on Thursday.

“I’m glad I’ve never been to court before because I’d never had the mic put in front of me like that, but when I saw it back, it didn’t look great. The only person I was really bothered about was the manager who’d lost his job, so I reached out to him.

“I spoke to Neil and cleared things up. He was fine. He didn’t see a problem there at all, but it was just the situation I was put in.

“Of course, I’d never, ever give disrespect to a manager who’s lost their job. I had a really, really good relationship with the manager.

“I’d actually spoke to him earlier in the day before the event that night, so I was glad I’d done that. But no, he didn’t have a problem there at all. That’s all I was really bothered about.”

Shankland insisted he would have had no issue fronting up and answering questions as he conceded the club were probably wrong to gag the players.

“Obviously, on behalf of the club, they’ve asked us not to engage with the press,” he explained.

“At the time, it might have been a bit better just to say something, and in hindsight, even I think probably the media team would admit that as well.

“As I said, it didn’t look great and the main thing I wanted to do was clear it up with Neil and (assistant) Mick Garrity, who have obviously lost their jobs.

“I had a lot of respect for Neil and Mick. They were really enjoyable to work with as well and most importantly, really, really good guys. So I felt it was important to reach out and just thank them for their time.”

The club were heavily criticised for staging an awards night so soon after sacking their manager for the second time this season.

Liam Fox, placed in interim charge following Critchley’s Saturday-night exit, also snubbed an interview request on arrival at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

“The timing and the nature of it wasn’t great after Neil and Mick leaving but the night was there to celebrate wee bits of individual stuff,” said Fox.

“We can’t get away from the fact that the timing of it, it’s not been a great season. Nobody’s hiding behind that but it is what it is. There’s nothing that I can control about that. That was set in place for a period of time.”