'He can bat it off' - ex Hearts ace ensures Derek McInnes' full focus will be on Kilmarnock clash despite outside noise
The former Leicester City and Dundee United man believes the Hearts boss will be unfazed by Rangers links
As the International break draws to a close, next up for Hearts is the notorious banana-skin of a fixture, Killie away.
Derek McInnes will be returning to Ayrshire for the first time since leaving Rugby Park for Tynecastle in the summer and a hostile response from the home fans is to be expected. The 54-year has steered Hearts to their best start to a season in four years as he looks to implement Tony Bloom’s dream of splitting the Old Firm. Hearts currently sit two points ahead of Celtic and eleven clear of Rangers.
On the contrary, the Ibrox side have had their worst start to a season in 47 years and as a result, sacked Russell Martin after their 1-1 draw at the Falkirk Stadium before the break. From Steven Gerrard to Danny Rohl, a long-shortlist of Rangers managers has been established by Rangers board members, which includes the current Hearts boss.
While sometimes links to other roles can act as a distraction for managers, former Hearts defender Robbie Neilson believes that due to the professionalism of McInnes, this won’t be the case. The current Lommel SK assistant spoke on BBC Sounds’ Scottish Football Podcast alongside broadcaster, Stephen McGowan.
‘He can bat it off’
Neilson said: “I think it's just that Derek's an extremely experienced manager and he can bat it off (Rangers speculation) and focus himself on the game at the weekend. I think that, when you're a manager, if you're doing well, you're getting asked a lot of difficult questions. If you're not doing well, then you're still getting asked a lot of difficult questions. If you're in that middle area it's pretty boring, there's not a lot to do.
“If you're looking at the two clubs at the moment, yes he's got a huge history with Rangers, having played there, but he's got an unbelievable opportunity here at Hearts to really do something that hasn’t been done for generations. So, I think his full focus will be on that. It's a credit to him and credit to his staff that he's getting talked about, you know, in terms of the Rangers job.
“But I think he'll be fully focused and there'll be no issues at all when he goes down to Kilmarnock because he's got his personal motivation for that one, having left there in the summer. It's a real interesting challenge at the moment. I think with Tony Bloom being there, when they get to January, they will spend again and I think if they're in a position where they can challenge (Rangers and Celtic) I think they'll do it again. So yeah, going back to Derek, it's a fantastic time to be at Hearts.”
‘Two top players for every position’
When questioned further by host, Adam Binnie on whether Hearts could challenge the old firm, Neilson said: “I certainly think they can and I think that's the issue you have with the old firm is that when you get to 15, 20, 25 games in, you've got guys who have played all these games and are starting to fatigue.
“But when I look at the Hearts squad now, there’s almost two top players for every position. It's usually December, or January when they start to fall away a little bit, as the schedule starts to get a bit more hectic but I think Hearts have got the quality to rotate that.
“Also, in my opinion when you look at the gulf between Rangers and Celtic compared to Hearts. We can beat everyone else within that league and take points off those two. So the bigger the gap gets, the more chance they've got of maintaining that.”