How Robbie Neilson was destined for Hearts return after requesting maroon in Dundee United strip

Dundee United skipper Mark Reynolds reckons Robbie Neilson was always destined to return to Hearts – after he requested maroon in the team’s away strip.

Hearts manager Robbie Neilson suggested the Dundee United away strip 'needs more maroon' while in charge of his former club. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

Neilson made the switch from Tannadice to his boyhood heroes in the summer despite having won promotion to the Ladbrokes Premiership, with Hearts going in the opposite direction.

Speaking to this week’s Football Daft podcast from Audio Frontier, defender Reynolds said his former manager wouldn’t have left for any other club.

Recalling a meeting of senior players and staff about the design of a new away strip, Reynolds said: “They brought three of the players in, the manager, the director of football, couple of the commercial guys, to discuss the new strip and what colours we could do.

“Obviously our new strip for the away strip is purple, so we’d been speaking about changing the colour and that.

“And Robbie just kept saying: ‘I just think it needs a bit more maroon in it.’

“I’m like: ‘What? We’ve never had a strip with maroon in it.’

“And he’s like: ‘No, I mean tangerine, a wee bit more tangerine.’ Then two minutes later he’s like that: ‘I like where it’s going, but could we put maroon in it?’ From that point I knew if Hearts came in for him, he was going.

“That’s just his team, it would have taken a massive club in England to get rid of him, and he was 100 per cent buying into what we were doing at Dundee United, but Hearts came calling, that was him, and he kind of said as much.

“The club came in and said look if you want to go and pursue that avenue, we’re not interested in you staying, because we want people who are 100 per cent committed.

“So I think there were a lot of factors at play as to why it happened so quickly. But he was fine – I’m sure if we see him again he’ll be fine and just telling his players to smash us like he used to do with us.”

Reynolds admitted that Neilson’s departure came as a sudden surprise to the players in the midst of planning for their return to the Premiership.

He said: “There’s always rumours, there’s always things kicking about, you hear a rumbling, or you hear this – it builds steam, and then it either happens…

“Sunday morning, I think, my dad texted to say I see your gaffer’s going to Hearts. My dad reads the papers all the time, and everything on the internet…

“I’m like, dad, I’ve told you this before, stop reading these websites, I would know – something would have come of it.

“By 3pm we got a call saying ‘Zoom call at 5’. On the Zoom call: ‘Yeah, the gaffer’s away.’ We were just like: ‘What?’

“That was the thing, the week before it we’d been on calls with him talking about a review of the season, how the Championship season had went, what we could do better, what you want to see going forward.

“It wasn’t a 20-minute call, it was like three/four hours for three nights that week. I’m like, I’ve just been on the phone, we’ve got a battleplan for next season, there’s no chance. And then aye, that was him, off he went."

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