Marvin Bartley: I learned lots from my time at Hibs - I treat QoS job like I’m the manager of Arsenal or Real Madrid

A few years ago, Marvin Bartley sat in an interview outlining his plans for the future. At that stage he was still playing, and had already dabbled in punditry, but it was clear where his focus lay.

Marvin Bartley gives instructions during Queen of the South's Viaplay Cup match against Motherwell.

Since his early 20s he had been taking notes of training sessions and coaching titbits that he hoped to utilise when he moved on to the next stage of his career and through his role as a TV analyst and thanks to the coaching courses and football management studies at university, he was in the process of fine-tuning his football philosophies and managerial style.

In a candid chat, he spoke about his limitations as a player but how he had worked hard to squeeze as much as he could from that ability but he also shared his excitement that such constraints need not be part of his management story. “I could never be a Ronaldo or a Messi but, as a coach and a manager, I believe that the sky’s the limit. I don’t believe there is anything that can stop me,” he said at the time.

Back then he was combining playing with coaching Livingston reserves and he went on to serve as assistant manager, before accepting the offer to step out on his own, as manager of League One side Queen of the South, in January. As thorough as Bartley was in his preparation, most managers will confess that the move from the dressing room to the gaffer’s office is an eye-opener and he is no different. So, a matter of months into his first gig, with a couple of transfer windows and his maiden pre-season as a boss under his belt, does he still believe he can scale that professional ladder?

Bartley has worked in a punditry role since coming into Scottish football.

“I have aspirations to manage at the top of the game and win massive things and I know some people will read this and think ‘who does he think he is, he’s managing in League One?’ Yeah, that’s where I am just now and my job is to be successful at Queen of the South but I have long-term ambitions. You can’t worry about the medium and long term, though, because it’s all about getting the short-term right. That’s what will determine what happens later.

“I have to treat this job like I’m the manager of Arsenal or Real Madrid. I don’t have a switch where I can turn it on and off. This is my club, my team and this is what I’m in control of for now.”

His approach is to treat his squad with the same respect, transparency, and honesty he admired as a player and make the same demands he placed on himself and his team-mates. Which is why he places such a premium on man-management. Bringing in the right men, and not just the right players, can be invaluable which is why some have been moved on for not being professional enough and others have been passed on when signing talks prompted a gut feeling.

“There’s such value in having that close knit team and my time at Hibs was like that. We had characters in there but we knew we had each other’s backs. I learned a lot from my time there, which was different from times down in England when players were there for the wrong reason and just didn't care.”

Bartley was alongside Livingston manager David Martindale before cutting out on his own.

Bartley cares. Massively. He did as a player but, now responsible for more than just his own dreams, things have intensified. “People have different reasons to be successful and I don't mind what drives them so long as we are all working together towards winning games and being successful,” he says.

A self-professed perfectionist, who has had to come to terms with the fact that life may not always serve up a squad equipped to serve up his preferred football philosophy and that Plan B can often be an acceptable compromise, it isn’t just the defeats that sting now. The performances matter, too. They often leave him pondering every aspect of his man-management, team selection, and tactics, and tapping into the expertise of former gaffers like Eddie Howe and Paul Heckingbottom.

“There’s enjoyment coming in every day but losing games of football is obviously difficult and that's when you don't sleep. But my enthusiasm and energy for it never goes away and that’s the most important thing. Win, lose or draw you have to have the energy to go again and try to make things better. When you go home after a bad day and think it doesn’t matter, it is what it is, or it is just a job to pay the bills you should maybe question if it is the right job but half the time I’m lying awake in bed and planning out tactics on the ceiling! I love it and wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Ask him if there is one particular result that galls, though, and there is an immediate response. “Kelty Hearts [just six games into his tenure] because it was a game we were in control of but we made a change and ended up losing 3-0. To lose games when things just don’t go right for you as a team, that is easier to accept in a way, but when you play well up to a point and still lose, for me, it’s a case of how did that happen?”

Bartley isn’t the only one who remembers that day vividly. It was also the day that his partner Eilidh [Barbour, the sports television presenter] realised that the ante had been upped. “She will never forget that defeat either because she came from work and I was just sitting there, with Casualty on the screen and she knows I would never watch that. She said something to me and I replied with some absolutely random nonsense so she just left me there and closed the living room door. She says that was when she knew it had hit me hard.”

While there is a best by date on a player’s career, age would not appear to be the same limiter when it comes to management with the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Roy Hodgson, and Claudio Ranieri all worked beyond the national retirement age, which would suggest that Bartley has plenty time to chase his targets.

He guffaws at the notion. “Managing into my late 60s or 70s? I’m definitely not doing that! I have a certain age in my head and if I’ve not made it by then, I’m done! I want my life back. The grey hairs are already coming and I’ve only been doing this since January!!

“But, for me, the mindset is winning the next game, then winning the next. But there is a rush in the sense that I want to be as successful as I can be as soon as I can be. There is huge pressure but that is put on me by myself and nobody else.

“For now, Tuesday against East Fife is my Champions League final and if i lose it or don't get the performance i want then i will be upset because, right now, that is the biggest game of my career.”