Hearts manager Daniel Stendel willing to adapt to 27-game Championship campaign if he returns

Daniel Stendel's future at Hearts remains in limbo for now.

Starting a truncated season in the second tier of Scottish football this October was unthinkable for Daniel Stendel when he accepted the Hearts manager's job last December.

Due to coronavirus, a controversial vote and failed league reconstruction plans, that is what he will sign up for if he stays at Tynecastle Park. He doesn’t hide his disappointment at the situation, but nor is he fazed.

Relegation from Premiership to Championship angered Hearts and their supporters given they had eight matches left on last season’s fixture list. It also rendered Stendel a free agent as his contract is only valid in the top flight.

He is willing to negotiate over a new one if the club hierarchy want him to remain. Like his players and backroom team, he is ready to return to work but, for now, only Premiership sides are permitted to train under Scottish Government rules.

Championship clubs have provisionally agreed an October 17 start date for season 2020/21, most likely without fans due to the virus.

They will play 27 league games instead of the normal 36. As Stendel points out, come October every player in the division will have been without competitive action for more than six months.

"You cannot change this. If the decision is to start in October, then you start in October,” he told the Evening News. “When I speak to some players, they would like to start earlier. This is not only a decision for the SPFL or the clubs. The Government must say this is okay.

"For Scottish teams, it is really important you can play with supporters because fans bring the most income. Maybe in the Championship more than the Premiership, you need to see if clubs can handle the financial side with the things they need to pay.

"If you start in the Championship in October, six months without playing football is a long time for a professional footballer. And for everybody else. There is only training for the Premiership teams now.

"In Germany, they started training in small groups and the feeling was that we were beginning to get back to normal life in sport. In every country, we all must look to the Government to play. At the moment, we are still waiting like a lot of other people in other jobs.”

Stendel is keen to finish the job he started with Hearts. He oversaw 17 games and managed five wins, five draws and seven defeats before football was forced into shutdown.

His last match in charge was the 1-0 loss at St Mirren on March 11, two days before the enforced break. That result left Hearts four points adrift at the bottom of the Premiership table.

They were relegated when more than 80 per cent of SPFL clubs voted to end the 2019/20 season based on average points per game.

"In the short time I have worked in Scotland with Hearts, I have liked it. I would like to win more games, that is the only bad thing in this time,” explained the German.

“I can see it is a club with potential. It needs a lot of hard work and you cannot change things in three and a half months.

"The club need to say what they want in the future, what the first goal is. Do they do the same as before and hope we come back to the Premiership, or do they want to go another way again?

"We have a big club, a really nice stadium, a great support and real potential. We need to build up the team with a lot of good young players from the academy.

“I think we have some really good players and we can start to work towards more ambitions for the future. I can only say I want to do it, but the final decision will be with [owner] Ann Budge and with the club.”

Like many supporters, Stendel was encouraged by Hearts’ form just prior to the shutdown. His team beat Rangers twice and overcame rivals Hibs at Easter Road. However, the performance in Paisley proved costly.

“The last few games before the league stopped were more positive, apart from the St Mirren game,” said Stendel. “I think before that you could see a development in the team. We were in a good way but the last game was really poor.

"If we did not lose this game then we would be on the same points as St Mirren. This is disappointing but you cannot change it.”

Stendel recognises that gate money is still the largest source of income for Scottish clubs and said he hopes fans are allowed to return to grounds soon.

"I hope Scottish football can start new and find the best way. It is not the best league in Europe but it is a really good league.

“You have such good support in your country for football and for this league, so I can only hope people can watch football in stadiums again soon.”

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