New Hibs boss Paul Heckingbottom ready to embrace rivalry with Hearts

On his first night out in the capital since becoming Hibernian manager Paul Heckingbottom was approached by a Hearts fan.
Hibs manager Paul Heckingbottom makes a point as he oversees training. Picture: Ross Parker/SNSHibs manager Paul Heckingbottom makes a point as he oversees training. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS
Hibs manager Paul Heckingbottom makes a point as he oversees training. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS

“My parents were up so I took them out for a meal on Saturday night after the game and met a couple of fans,” said Scottish football’s latest inductee. “The first one was a Hearts fan but he was nice to me, so it was alright.”

But he is hoping that the fans of derby rivals will be less inclined towards convivial conversation the longer he is in the job, as he vies with the Gorgie club for city supremacy as well as league positions and silverware.

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“Yeah, I’m sure not every Hearts fan will be so positive with me if we get where we want to be,” he added. “But you can’t please everyone in a city that’s split.”

That meeting is indicative of the busy but relatively carefree introduction the former Leeds and Barnsley boss has enjoyed as the new Easter Road manager, though.

His new charges served up only their second Premiership win of 2019, defeating Hamilton in his first game at the helm and the biggest issue so far has been accessing wifi as he tries to do his homework and settle into the job and life in a new city. That has pushed the task of finding a home further up his ‘to do’ list.

“It’s a necessity because we’ve got no broadband in the place we’re in at the minute. Absolute nightmare! So we’re either at the training ground or sat in a hotel somewhere trying to get good broadband,” he said. “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.” Add that to everything else he has been doing to get to know the squad he inherited and the opposition his men will come up against and then distil all that information into a plan to guide the club up the Premiership standings and it has been an all-consuming first week.

“It’s been 24/7. The job generally is. 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.”

Tomorrow night Heckingbottom’s men will travel to Dens Park to face Dundee. On paper it is another winnable match. The first visit there in September ended in a 3-0 win for the Leith side but Dundee upped their game when they fought out a 2-2 draw when the teams met again, at Easter Road, in November. But with his family unlikely to move north while his kids are consumed by GCSEs, his focus is purely on improving Hibs and ensuring a bright end to the current campaign and building towards the next.

“Things like that will make it difficult in the short term. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be settled here and make sure we’ve got a home here,” he said. “You need somewhere to relax and get the family up. The amount of people who have got in touch speaking so well about the club and the city has been unbelievable.”

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Heckingbottom is not blind to the ongoing unrest in Scottish football, with managerial carping, ref rows and accusations of bias all major talking points this season. As an outsider coming in, he says it is like turning up sober at a party when everyone else is already several vodkas ahead. “Yeah. That’s exactly what it is. And these are the type of things you can lose your focus with if you’re not careful. You can 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.”