Ex-Hearts boss shares why he struggled with Nuno at Tottenham and Scottish football similarities in latest job

A former Hearts boss has revealed how his latest job shares Scottish football similarities - as he shares why it didn’t work for him at Tottenham.

Ian Cathro has scooped manager of the month in Portugal after guiding Estoril Praia on their best run of form for three quarters of a century. After a tough start in the Portuguese top flight, Cathro’s side are now eighth. He was handed a shot as Hearts gaffer after his coaching potential came to light but won just seven games out of 30.

Cathro has built his stock again at clubs like Tottenham and Wolves alongside Nuno Esperito Santo, and has spoken with talkSPORT of the Scottish football similarities he’s found at Estoril. He said: “I've always got to touch up the sun cream before I go out.

"It's a league I've always had an eye on since starting out with Nuno 12 or 13 years ago in the league. Even at the smaller clubs, there's a lot of good players in it and I'm happy to be here. It's similar in some ways [to Scotland], economically. There is that gulf that exists [between the biggest clubs and the others]. But I think they manage to get through it and past it because they export so many good players.

“I think it's linked to the culture to be honest. Generally speaking I think you find the young ones coming through here have a different understanding of the game.

"The technical level is very high but they tend to be very smart players as well. I look at the Portuguese players we worked with at Wolves, they were making their first move but they already understood football very well."

His time as an assistant to the current Nottingham Forest boss at Tottenham also saw some struggles. But now Esperito Santo is thriving in another Premier League job, and Cathro believes they were simply not in the right film for Spurs success.

He added: “"The thing I would say about Nuno, whenever he is fully supported by the club he has only ever had success.

"At the end of the day the guy at the front of the team has to be able to connect everybody and get everybody working towards the same goal and I don't see anybody better at doing that.

"It's fair to say - and I'm not upsetting anybody by saying this - some things in life just aren't a fit. You're just a little bit in the wrong film. You move on and you try to do things better the next time."