Hibs’ Paul Heckingbottom on first week in Edinburgh, getting a house and meeting Hearts fan

As well as trying to steer Hibs back towards the top six in his early weeks as head coach, Paul Heckingbottom must also contend with getting his own house in order.

Hibernian manager Paul Heckingbottom says it has been '27/7' since he arrived

The Yorkshireman explained that his first week in charge of the Easter Road club has been “24/7” as he gets to grips with his new working environment while effectively living out of a suitcase. Finding a new home in the Capital is high on his “to do” list. “It’s a necessity because we’ve got no broadband in that place we’re in at the minute,” said Heckingbottom. “Absolute nightmare! So we’re either at the training ground or sat in a hotel somewhere trying to get good broadband. It sounds daft but logistics like that makes a big difference to your job. If a 30 second job turns into a 30 minute job it all adds up so these little things are really important.”

Although Heckingbottom’s family are likely to remain in Yorkshire for the time being, he is eager to have a base he can call home in Edinburgh, a city in which he already feels comfortable. “I’m not moving the family up at the moment because there’s GCSEs and things like that which will make that difficult in the short term,” he explained. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be settled here and make sure we’ve got a home here. You need to be settled and have somewhere to relax and get the family up.

“You get used to travelling because it’s just part of the job. If you couldn’t handle that you wouldn’t be in this line of work. My parents were up on Saturday so I took them out for a meal after the game and met a couple of fans. The first one was a Hearts fan but he was nice to me, so it was alright. I’m sure not every Hearts fan will be so positive with me if we get where we want to be. You can’t please everyone in a city that’s split.

“On Sunday I had a drive about before coming in to do a bit of work, but I knew the city a little bit anyway. I was here a few months ago because one of my little girls was playing in a football tournament up this way so we brought the rest of the family up for a holiday, so it’s not unfamiliar to me. So it’s been good but once we get our own place it will be even better.”

After being out of football since leaving Leeds United last summer, Heckingbottom has relished feeling the day-to-day intensity of management again over the past week. “It’s been 24/7,” he said. “The job generally is but certainly there is a skill in this job that you need and that’s managing your time well. But I expected it to be constant to start with, just as I expect it to start settling down. We’ve watched a lot of videos, both of the opposition and us, to help planning but the emphasis is very much on us now and it will be going forward.”

In coming into a new job during the season, Heckingbottom has had to deal with the short-term need for positive results in the quest for the top six, while also beginning the process of implementing his blueprint for long-term prosperity.

“That’s just how it is,” he said, when asked about the difficulty of coming in midway through the season. “It is a long-term thing and you have to have a long-term approach. Ok, you need results so you have to affect the players and their mindset in the short term but in terms of their understanding of what you want from them, it is difficult to speed that process up. There has to be two approaches. In the short term, really get them fired up and focused on how important these games are and what they mean to them as a team, and in the long term, help them out and find little ways to improve their game and their understanding to help take us forward.”

Heckingbottom has entered the madcap world of Scottish football at a time when there is talk of foreign referees being drafted in after a string of high-profile controversies this season. While most managers in the Premiership have been caught up at some point in the chaos this season, Heckingbottom insists he would prefer to focus on the football and has no desire to get embroiled in rows with officials or other managers.

Asked if he was aware of the in-fighting which has engulfed Scottish football, he said: “I’m only aware of it when people are speaking about it and I suppose I’ll experience more of it the longer I’m here. But I can’t be doing with political issues, I can’t be bothered dealing with it so you’d get a stock answer from me. These are the type of things you can lose your focus with if you’re not careful. You get drawn into things instead of asking yourself ‘can I influence it?’ No. ‘Can I influence the players in here and what we do? Yes’, so that will be all I’m bothered about.”