McInnes 'not bothered' by outside voices writing off Hearts title credentials with major milestone in reach
Hearts face Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday with the chance to extend their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
Hearts boss Derek McInnes says the target that the players and coaches set at the start of this season would now not be enough to match their ambitions as they close in on it.
The Jambos head coach revealed that in the build up to their 2025/26 Scottish Premiership opener at home to Aberdeen they had a meeting to set a goal for the campaign. The aim was to get to 18 league wins as quickly as possible as they felt that would ben enough to guarantee European football the following season.
The league leaders currently have 17 wins from their 26 Premiership matches and will hit that goal if they beat Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday. However, they are now well aware that initial target is no longer a relevant one given their position at the top of the table.
McInnes ‘not bothered’ by outside voices writing off Hearts title credentials
Asked if he was using the fact that many pundits continue to write them off as credible title challengers, McInnes said: “I am not really bothering about people saying we won’t win the league, I get that.
“People are paid for their opinions so you can’t really complain. I am fine with it. I understand it to be honest.
“The majority of people still expect Rangers and Celtic to come through. There have been so many good stories this year. Hibs are still having a good season, Falkirk are having a brilliant season and Motherwell are having a great season. I still think all these teams have a big part to play.
“A lot of managers are doing a lot of good work this season. I am just happy to be relevant and being where we are. I could not think of anything worse as all that going on and us not – at the outset we were probably challenging ourselves against the Dundee Uniteds, Hibs and Aberdeens, because that is where we saw ourselves with budgets and things like that.
“To be where are is good. But now we are there, we don’t want to just be happy with our lot. In the last meeting before we played Aberdeen in the league in the first game of the season we spoke about our first challenge is getting to 18 wins as quickly as possible, which guarantees European football – well, that’s what I felt. We are just one win shy of that now. Obviously things have changed. That would not be enough.
“ I understand why there are still sceptics out there. It is unusual to see Hearts where they are with 12 games to go. I think it was early on, when we went top in September, ‘oh good old Hearts’. And then October, ‘what a good story’. And then November, December…But since then we are starting to annoy a few people: ‘Why are they still there?’ People can’t quite get their heads around it. For me we are there, we are enjoying what we are doing.”
Hearts set for massive Scottish Premiership clash with Rangers at Ibrox
All eyes will be on Ibrox this weekend as second host first in the Scottish Premiership. A win for Hearts puts them eight points clear of Danny Rohl’s side while victory for the hosts closes the gap to just two points.
“We see the significance of the game clearly,” said McInnes. “But I think it's from our point of view, from my point of view, that nothing's going to get decided on Sunday - win, lose or draw.
“I don't want to mistake that for us wanting to do anything other than go and win the game. We see this as a brilliant opportunity to go there and win the game if we can.
“We understand the importance of the three points for both teams. But for us, we just need to concentrate on the performance and I don't think that anything's going to get decided on win, lose or draw.
“It was well documented the last time before we went to Ibox how poor our record as a club is there. So it's a good reference point for us that we've actually won these types of games.
“Sometimes as a manager, your job is to be a salesman when you go to a sales department in Ibrox to convince your players. You set your team up the best way you can to get a result.
“Technically, tactically, physically, you've got to be on point. I think sometimes mentally as well, make sure that the players' approach is spot on and I think that's what we've had.
“The one at Ibox, we had to do so much right in the game to go there and win. It's obviously a different Rangers team now in the sense that there's a lot of players that will play on Sunday against us that didn't play that game.
“Rangers recruited well in January. I think they identified the areas that they wanted and they got everything they wanted. Whether that was at left back, a number six, a wide right player and a centre forward.
“They've spent a bit of money to get that in so they've obviously really invested to make those necessary adjustments. I think Rangers have shown a strength through January and are obviously in decent form. But I still think we feel we've got a performance in us that can win the game.
“The feeling from our point of view is that we're going there to win and hopefully we can do that. But whether we win, whether we don't, we don't think that anything will be decided off the back it.”