Hearts transfers: Derek McInnes reveals squad plans, the 'music to his ears' and Scottish core

Derek McInnes will have a busy summer at Hearts as he remodels his squad. | SNS Group

Sift through the squad lists of St Johnstone, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock during the years that Derek McInnes managed them and you spot a familiar trait.

They are teams built on solid Scottish and British foundations. McInnes has always found success through having such a core. Will it be the same at Hearts?

The new Jambos manager took over on Monday and immediately squad remodelling was high on the agenda. Hearts underachieved this season, finishing seventh in the Premiership, and McInnes is tasked with bringing in a new era at Tynecastle after swapping Rugby Park for Tynecastle. He also has the assistance of a pretty powerful database when it comes to recruitment. Already Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis has arrived since McInnes stepped in the building.

Derek McInnes will have a busy summer at Hearts as he remodels his squad. | SNS Group

The tie-up with Brighton owner Tony Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics will allow McInnes access to markets he has not had the privilege of shopping in. Budget constraints at previous clubs have resulted in him wheeling and dealing in the free agent pool. His most exotic signing was Venezuelan full-back Ronald Hernandez at Aberdeen - although he was as much as club arrival than McInnes’.

“At every club I've been at, I've had to grab it and take ownership of recruitment and drive that,” said McInnes. “I've never had a lot of money to spend. Obviously at Aberdeen we had some money, but we weren't dependent on money to be a success in the transfer market.

“Whatever money we do get to spend, we need to try and spend it wisely. Some signings at Aberdeen you don't always get right, but the majority work for us. A lot of them became real assets.

Music to McInnes’ Hearts ears

“The Jamestown analytics, for me it's music to your ears for a manager. They're dealing with all of that. Half my time as a manager is sifting through footage after footage of players time and time again that clearly aren't good enough. You've wasted a lot of time and energy speaking to agents and clubs and building all these relationships just to try and get some sort of little advantage. Where I've been at clubs before, you're trying to get ahead of all these other clubs who are all in the same ballpark. We're all paying roughly the same money. We're all fishing in the same pond for players. We've all got similar relationships with agents and clubs. It's hard just to gain that little bit of advantage.

“I do think we have a huge advantage with the Jamestown stuff. It's important for us to try and utilise that. As for that whole narrative of me needing total control, it's a manager's job to control. As a head coach, you've got to control the day-to-day environment. You have to have some element of control if you're going to lead and be a manager. But that whole narrative about having total control and dead against working with a sporting director or whatever, it's just not true. I've just never had the luxury or the opportunity to have one.

“I'm looking forward to working in different markets and different ponds, obviously. Even some players that's been put to me are players that wouldn't ordinarily be on the horizon. The last few years, as a manager, I've been looking at the out-of-contract list, the free agent list, the loan market. Obviously, now we're looking at different ponds and different opportunities.”

A Scottish core at Hearts

Regardless, the 53-year-old is unlikely to stray from his principles. He knows there is a formula that needs to be followed when configuring a successful team in Scotland.

“I do think it's important that we bring players from different countries and the like,” continued McInnes. “It's important that not every player that we sign at Hearts can be a project. Not every player that we sign at Hearts can be a view to selling them on. And it's not as if they're just visiting here and then they go elsewhere just because we can make a return.

“Obviously, it's a business and we still want to be able to do that. But I believe, and I spoke strongly about this to the board, that there has to be a culture within the Hearts dressing room that when players come from outwith, that they know this is how you act at Hearts. This is how we behave. This is how we turn up. This is how we train. This is what's expected of you. And there has to be a core of British-based players here who see Hearts as the club they're going to be at over the next few years and they remain constants within that.

Danny Welbeck and Co offer Brighton an English core. | Getty Images

“I really believe firmly on that, that when a lot of lads come from overseas and to get that integration, I think when you sign players from abroad, they work better and they work to their full potential when the culture is driven from within. That culture is driven from how we are at Hearts day-to-day.

“I think you've got to recognise what you're dealing with in Scottish football. You can't just fill it full of players from far-flung places. I just want to work with good players. If a good player comes from a certain country or another country or another country, just bring them in. But I do think there's got to be an identity and a culture within the club that is... I mean, even you look at Brighton, Danny Welbeck, Lewis Dunk, James Milner. There's players there that stay at Brighton for a reason. They're well-paid, but they're vital. They're all there for a reason to bring and help bring these ones on.

“And I would like to think that we're a Scottish club. We have got to make sure there's a core of Scottish players, ideally full of our academy players, where you get that maximum return in terms of value and maximum return in terms of performance.”