Hearts next manager favourite breaks silence on Tynecastle job link and addresses Steven Naismith sacking

Derek McInnes has stressed that his focus is solely on Kilmarnock after being installed as one of the favourites to replace the sacked Steven Naismith at Hearts.

Naismith was axed following a 2-1 loss at St Mirren on Saturday that left the Tynecastle side rooted to the bottom of the William Hill Premiership with just one point from their opening six league fixtures.

Kilmarnock are only one point better off - albeit having played a game less - after winning only one of their 12 competive fixtures so far this season both domestically and in Europe.

McInnes took the Ayrshire side from mid-table in the Championship to European football in two-and-a-half years and is determined to kick-start their league campaign against Dundee United on Saturday.

When asked if the Tynecastle reports were a compliment, the 53-year-old said: “Not really, no. I actually don’t take any notice of it. My job and focus is here.

“I’m at an age now where, when you get linked with things or your job’s under pressure, people talking about it, I actually don’t really see much merit in dwelling on it.

“My job is fully on Kilmarnock and it’s just about making sure that we are the team I want us to be, being relevant as we were last season, people giving us plenty of plaudits and mixing it and landing a few blows on bigger teams with bigger budgets.

“I believe we can be that team again. I actually think we’ve got the potential to be better than last year and that excites me and hopefully we can start by getting a winning performance again on Saturday.”

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes is among the favourites for the Hearts job. | SNS Group

Naismith was the second Premiership manager to lose his job this season following Craig Levein’s exit from St Johnstone the previous week. The former Killie player led Hearts to a comfortable third-place finish in his one full campaign but paid the price for eight consecutive defeats.

McInnes has spoken to both managers and felt they were both harshly treated after meeting their goals last season.

The former Rangers midfielder is now the longest-serving manager in the Premiership having taken charge in January 2022 but even he appreciates how fragile a job it can be.

“You’ve got to win games, clearly, but you’ve got to have that connection,” he said. “The strongest connection you can have to get results is through your dressing room and have that strong connection with your players.

“You’ve also got the strong connection with the key decision makers at the club, or the key decision maker. And that’s got to be there. There’s got to be similarities, understanding, there’s got to be a similar mindset, similar ambition and way of working.

“But the hardest one at times is working that real connection with supporters because supporters feel there’s always somebody maybe better there, another option that could maybe in their eyes get better results.

“Having those key connections is vitally important and you need to work hard at it. But when you lose that sort of connection with the dressing room, key decision maker, supporters, then the job becomes really difficult.

“And you’ve seen it so often, now, the clamour for ‘right, there’s one manager who’s the next one?’ It’s the betting odds, the newspapers report on it, pundits talk about it. It’s just the way it is. It’s not going to change no matter what we all think, and it’s just the law of the jungle really.

“You’ve just got to try and keep your head above water and keep yourself going and believe in what you’re doing and trust your way of working.”