Hearts midfielder Andy Halliday reveals plans for post-playing career

Andy Halliday has revealed he sees a long-term future in coaching after his playing days come to an end.

The midfielder, in addition to his performances for Hearts, is known for his burgeoning media career having worked for Open Goal and Radio Clyde over recent seasons.

However, the 31-year-old has recently caught the coaching bug after assisting his brother Robbie to manage Broomhill’s Under-20s team.

“We had a totally new group of players at Broomhill who hadn’t done well the previous year. They weren’t great to watch,” he told the Mail on Sunday.

Hearts utility man Andy Halliday is interested in going into coaching after his playing career ends. Picture: SNS

“We wanted to play a certain way so, the first week in training, we worked on our build-up, a pattern to build through the thirds and a move to get us an attack at goal.

“Then we played Montrose in a friendly, whose Under-20s group was good. Within five minutes of the game, we scored a goal from the drill of play we’d worked on all week. From that moment I knew coaching was for me. What a buzz I got from it.

“The boys had taken on the information, applied it in the game and actually scored from it. I thought: ‘This is f***ing brilliant.’

“Helping Robbie has made me realise just how much passion I have for developing young players. I’ve loved every minute of it."

Andy Halliday has been helping his brother with coaching the Broomhill under-20s team. Picture: SNS

Having managed to overcome all the hurdles and pitfalls there are for young players growing up in this country to make a career out of football, Halliday wants to help future generations make the right decisions and increase the number of talented kids to make it to the professional ranks.

“I’ve seen so many talented kids who, five years down the line, don’t live up to their potential. I’ve always questioned why,” he said.

"It’s a big thing for me. Is it coaching, opportunity, finance? I’ve seen hundreds of young players who haven’t made it. When I was 13 or 14 I didn’t realise how hard it was to make it as a professional. There were boys my age who were so good, it was a fact they’d make it. But, for whatever reason, they just didn’t. It can be attitude, personal problems – you don’t know what everyone’s individual situation is.

“That’s why coaching is definitely a route I want to go down. And I would like to start in an academy.”

Andy Halliday says he'll miss playing when he hangs up his boots, regardless of how much satisfaction he gets from coaching. Picture: Getty

When it comes to envisioning his own philosophy on how football should be taught, Halliday can look back on a career working with many distinguished coaches, while he’s also taking pointers from the man currently in charge of his training days.

“The smart people in football steal ideas from the best and I have been fortunate to work with top managers. So you take little nuggets from all of them,” he said.

“In terms of my own development as a player, I always think back to my youth coaches like Drew Todd, Scott Allison, Paul Connolly, who were all brilliant for me when I came through at Livingston.

“But you don’t become obsessed with the tactical side of the game until you are a bit older. For me, it was then the likes of Mark Warburton, Neilson, Strachan, Gerrard and Beale who influenced me.

“Even watching the stuff Steven Naismith does with us now at Hearts, I’m intrigued by that side of it.

“How you structure a team, how you improve what you’ve got – I try to be a sponge and take on board as much as I can. You might not agree with what some of them say or do. But as long as you understand that they’re doing it for a specific reason, you can learn from it. I have taken bits and pieces from all of them.

Helping Halliday to realise his ambition of staying in the game after he’s done playing is his unwavering devotion to the sport. Much to the chagrin of his partner, the former Rangers ace rarely chooses anything else to watch in his time away from playing, coaching and broadcasting.

"My missus hates the amount of football I watch at home. It doesn’t matter what level it’s at or what league it is,” he said.

“I’m a student of the game, I love watching it. I want to pinpoint styles and patterns of play. It fascinates me, especially over the last few years.

“The thing I look forward to most is Monday Night Football with Carragher and Neville. I love the way they do their analysis. It’s giving fans a whole new dimension to the game.”

Regardless of where his coaching career takes him, Halliday insists he wants to have his brother alongside him.

“I definitely see me and Robbie being a partnership going forward in terms of coaching,” he said.

“I’ve so many friends and family in football. Even my mum and dad are mad about the game. But after a match if I speak to anyone it has always been my wee brother.

“He’s played Junior football and has a good mind for the game. He understands it. I enjoy going back and forth with him. We say what we see and bounce off one another.

“We’ve always been that way. He’s still playing but he’s always been obsessed with it. He’s been coaching since he was 21.

“If this is a path I go down, he’s someone I’d take with me. So long as I can play at the top level, I’ll do that for as long as I possibly can.

“But when the time comes and I feel I can’t do that, I’ll be the first to call it a day.

“As much as I’ll miss being a player, I'm not scared to move on to the next thing. As long as I can stay in a football environment I’ll be happy.

“Right now I see myself playing for another few years at least. But I’m not afraid of what happens next.”