John McGlynn talks on Hearts job as manager changes are laid out

Falkirk manager John McGlynn stressed that any interest from Hearts is purely hypothetical after winning Scotland’s Manager of the Year award. Having secured the Championship title and promotion to the Premiership following a 15-year wait for his club on Friday evening, McGlynn was voted PFA Scotland Manager of the Year on Sunday to crown a memorable weekend.

It is the third time the 63-year-old has won the award, but he remained coy on talk that he is a contender for the managerial vacancy at Hearts. The Edinburgh News understands that he was an early candidate but that his chances of the job have since reduced.

“It was mentioned the last time as well. It’s hypothetical. I’ve not been asked,” said McGlynn. “I'm contracted to Falkirk. If someone at Hearts thinks I should be their manager then they need to speak to the club and the club will talk to me, and then we’ll see. Again, it’s hypothetical, because I know your next question is going to be ‘What if?’”

McGlynn managed Hearts from June 2012 until February 2013 during a period when club finances were shambolic under then-owner Vladimir Romanov. He was sacked for poor results but is a much-changed coach now after overhauling his approach. He explained the circumstances under which he had to work last time at Tynecastle Park.

Hearts 5-1 Hibs and the cash crisis under Vladimir Romanov

“Hearts won the Scottish Cup 5-1 against Hibs. I’m now given the Hearts job,” he recalled. “Every player went who was out of contract. There was no money. My brief was to put young players in. I did. I put Callum Paterson in, guys like Dale Carrick and others. It was a very difficult time. We had a transfer embargo. We could only sign players who were under-21, and we had to get one player out to get one player in. It was a very difficult time.

“I’m sure you guys will have listened to the Romanov thing [BBC podcast]. I’ve not because I was obviously part of it and know a fair amount of what went on. It was a very difficult time, and we got injuries. Marius Zaliukas, a big player for us, he was out injured, guys like Callum Paterson were out injured. We actually got to the League Cup final, which wasn’t a bad thing. Our league position wasn’t good, I understand that, it wasn’t good, but that’s what kind of killed me in the end. But I thought we actually did quite well.

“We got Liverpool [in the Europa League play-off] and drew, and got beat 2-1 on aggregate. We go to Anfield and go ahead with not a lot of time to go. It wasn’t all bad. The league position wasn’t great. We were never going down because Dundee were getting relegated and there weren’t any play-offs at that point in time.

“After that, I was out of work for a few months. I got the Livingston job, my brief was to keep them up, they were bottom of the Championship, which we did. We got them to the Petrofac Cup, the equivalent of the Challenge Cup, which they won, but before I got to manage that I’d moved on and went to Celtic.

Celtic lessons and Liverpool Europa League tie at Anfield

“I learned a lot at Celtic. Initially, for the first 18 months, I was working in recruitment with John Park and the recruitment group. Ronny Deila and John Collins were the manager and assistant manager. They were good to work with. Then Brendan [Rodgers] came in. There was a little bit of connection because of Hearts and Liverpool. He was managing Liverpool at the time [when McGlynn came up against him with Hearts]. He wanted me to look at the opposition which was a great job, an amazing job, to learn from him - but not only to learn from him.

“I was domestic and European, so I’m watching Man Citys, I’m watching Barcelonas, I’m watching PSGs, I’m watching the whole lot. And on a daily basis, I’m watching the Celtic players training. I was never on the training pitch. Never ever. It was an office job. I could look and see what they were doing. I was in meetings with Brendan, I understand what he looks for, and I see the way the team can play. You would’ve have been stupid not to learn.

“I learned so much, and I’ve managed to put that into the teams I’ve worked with since. I know that, at Raith Rovers, people were loving what they were watching. We were a little bit unlucky. We won Challenge Cups, we were very close, we did a really good job, they dilly-dallied around a new contract. Falkirk came to us, seemed enthusiastic for us, and the rest is history.”

McGlynn is the first manager ever to win Scotland’s Manager of the Year award three times. He previously took the trophy in 2010/11 whilst in charge at Raith Rovers, and 2023/24 after guiding Falkirk to promotion from League One without losing a match. “It’s incredible, actually. To be the first person to win three of these things for the first time is absolutely amazing,” he said.

“It takes your breath away to be honest with you. All the managers, great managers, that have worked in Scotland - how can I have three of these? It’s crazy, but I obviously must be getting something right because people like what I do. My fellow peers think that I’m doing a good job and they respect me and vote for me. I can only thank them enormously and everyone that’s voted for me.

“Our style is good. I think people like to see attractive attacking football. I’ve done it at two clubs. We were very close [to promotion] with Raith Rovers a few years back, getting to the play-off semi-final against Dundee. We were second in the league with two games to go, and Dundee beat us. We managed to beat Dunfermline in the quarter-final of the play-off, and we lost to Dundee before Dundee went on to beat Kilmarnock, so we were very close that year.

“I’m very very privileged and honoured to be here as a Falkirk manager who’s just gone into the Premiership. A massive thank you to Paul Smith, my assistant manager, all the backroom staff, all the players, the fans for their backing, and the directors for backing us in January. Everything has just come together.

Celtic, Rangers, Hearts, Hibs, Dundee United, Dundee and Motherwell all lie in wait

“I think the big thing being that Falkirk fans, for the first time in 15 years, are going to be going to Celtic Park, Ibrox, Tynecastle, Easter Road, Tannadice, Dens Park, Fir Park - all these places they haven’t been for the past 15 years other than the odd cup tie here and there. To be going there, I’m sure is going to really whet their appetite.”

McGlynn is basking in the satisfaction of his greatest season in football. “It has to. To do back to back, to win League One and win the Championship, there’s no doubt about that at all,” he said. “Although we had the belief and the ambition to do it, you have to actually do it. We felt we could, honestly, I’m not joking. Ipswich did it - they went League One, Championship, and got to the Premier League. At the start of the season we said: ‘Let’s do an Ipswich.’ I don’t want to do what Ipswich have done now, right enough, and go straight back down again! But we’ve managed to do what they did. So there was a belief we could do it.

“The momentum we had from the previous season after the invincible, the guys coming back, they went to Ibiza as they will do now. It was a great team bonding. They probably made some pact among themselves that they were going to do well this year. You get a start, as you’ve got to do in any league campaign, we got a middle, and we got a little bit jittery towards the end and we got over the line.

“To win a league you need a good start, a good middle and a good end. We got two thirds of that and we’ve managed to creep over the line. We’d like to have been flying over the line. We were in a position to do that, a little bit jittery and we’ve managed to creep over the line. We’ll forget about the jitters and just be happy we’re there.”

Falkirk in Europe at the end of season 2025/26?

One long-term plan is to bring European football back to Falkirk. McGlynn’s attacking style of play harnesses confidence that it can be achieved. “I’m sure there are a lot of Falkirk fans talking like that because you see the style of football we play. Sometimes you get some of the [Premiership] games on TV and think: ‘That wasn’t particularly attractive.’ Anything can happen to us next season, I’ve got so much respect for everyone working in the Premiership. I think we’ll be a good addition, I think that’s a little bit ambitious, but you never know. We will come back in pre season round about 13 June and we’ll take it and plan from there.”

McGlynn admitted he is struggling to take in the events of the last few days, which is a culmination of three years’ hard work at the Falkirk Stadium. “It’s a great feeling, of course it is, yeah. It’s probably not really sunk in yet,” he said. “It may be in 10 years from now when you’re wandering along the street, you may take in exactly what you’ve achieved here rather than at the moment.

“People like us knew very quickly that the infrastructure needs to get better. We started that on Tuesday. We need to get a little bit more physicality, a little bit more experience in the team. That starts Tuesday. It’s actually been started but we can go and fast-forward it. You’re not very long thinking about that. It’s the next phase now. The guys can go to Ibiza, and we’ll start planning. The planning has been there, but we’ve not pushed the buttons.

“Anything could have happened on Friday night and we’d have been back in the Championship and we’d have to get on with it, or even be in the play-offs. Now we can go ahead with certainty, we know where we’re going to be. We’re going to need a few players to come in and support the players we’ve got. Basically, every player outside Falkirk, and by that I mean the loan players, will go back. Everyone else has signed for next season and we need to add five or six players to that group to be a force in the Premiership.

Premiership prize money will run into millions of pounds for the Bairns

“We need the club to be stabilised with finance. The club is in a good position right now, can we make it better with the infrastructure? Thats the next phase. We’ve got to where we are right now quicker than expected, so we’re ahead of schedule. You guys might know, but off the top of my ahead, Falkirk would’ve got something like £170,000 or £180,000 for winning League One. We’re going to get something like £1.8m for being relegated out of the Premiership.

“If we get relegated, we’ll have made £1.8m, so if we stay in that, we’ll get upwards of £1.8m, so five years in League One would have been very difficult for Falkirk. Money obviously helps, as you all know, so if we can stabilise, that then can go into more infrastructure, giving the players that are doing particularly well new contracts, extending contracts, and rewarding them - or bringing players in to perhaps get the club into Europe. You have to have that ambition of what you can go and achieve, but it’s a very difficult league.”

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