I don’t need a vote of confidence, says Hibs boss Paul Heckingbottom

Not surprisingly for someone from Yorkshire, Paul Heckingbottom considers himself to be a realist. He is aware all the words, all the backing and all the statements in the world won’t count for much if Hibs – or Hearts for that matter – don’t start winning games soon.
Hibernian manager Paul Heckingbottom. Picture: SNSHibernian manager Paul Heckingbottom. Picture: SNS
Hibernian manager Paul Heckingbottom. Picture: SNS

His priority is for the former scenario, particularly since the two teams currently united in crisis face each other at Easter Road tomorrow.

On the face of it, bottom-of-the-table Hearts’ situation is more serious. Heckingbottom has endured some strong and unpleasant criticism from supporters but as yet, and this of course could change in the very near future, there’s been no protest outside the Easter Road front door like there has been at Tynecastle.

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This very public display of deep dissatisfaction provoked a response in midweek from the Hearts hierarchy. Owner
Ann Budge was moved to compose a very thorough statement that amounted to a (very long) vote of confidence in Craig Levein.

By contrast, there’s been silence at Hibs. Ron Gordon has been around but isn’t currently in the country so won’t attend the first derby of his short reign as owner. Any public backing of Heckingbottom has been conspicuous by its absence.

The manager reports there’s been dialogue in private between the pair. “Over the last three or four weeks? Quite a bit,” he said.

“The chairman’s been over quite a bit, so there’s been lots of interaction, lots of informal
conversations about football, about us, about this club, about how he’s finding this role now.”

This interaction has been during a period when Hibs have patently struggled to find form. They have lost three of their last four league games, drawing the other. They have not fallen as far as Hearts but they have certainly been heading down rather
than up. Pressure is building but Heckingbottom is glad there’s been no show of public support from his own paymaster. He figures – and there’s plenty of evidence to support his claim – that such assurances are not worth the paper they are written on.

How often have managers
been removed soon after being promised time to rectify the situation? Heckingbottom suggested it’s all a sham.

“I don’t think I need that,” he said. “Does it mean anything? I don’t think it means anything, anyway. Come on. I would love to chat with you all when we’re not on camera. You probably wouldn’t ask me the same questions.

“We all know what it’s like and what football is. You have to just laugh about some of the things. Some of the questions you get asked, some of the answers you have to give. You have to, for your own sanity. If we spent time worrying about all that and trying to be a politician, we wouldn’t win anything. Leave the politics and all that to those people. We just want to work with players, try to win games.”

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He says he appreciates what Levein is currently going through, but as for feeling sympathy? Not a bit of it. How could that be the case when, come the final whistle tomorrow, he hopes his opposite number’s prospects are bleaker still. It’s the nature of the beast. Levein got his second chance in the dugout because Ian Cathro was removed prior to the first league match of a season. In Spain, meanwhile, Valencia manager Marcelino Garcia Toral recently lost his job just months after overcoming Barcelona to win the Copa del Rey, the club’s first trophy in 11 years.

“It is what football has come to,” said Heckingbottom. “Managers have already lost their jobs this season, having set records and reached cup finals last season. That’s what it is.”

“There is a respect there because you know the job they are trying to do and how hard managers work and what comes with the job and the sacrifices you make for it,” he added, with direct reference to Levein. “But you would not do it if you did not enjoy it. So there’s a respect there definitely. But there cannot be sympathy. There is an understanding but there cannot be sympathy. We are trying to beat each other, and that will be no different in two days’ time.”

He accepts his own contribution might be limited during the course of the 90 minutes. The onus is on the players since there’s little hope of instructions being heard over the sound and fury. He has played footage of past derbies to those preparing to experience the fixture for the first time. Hibs could field half a team of Edinburgh derby debutants.

“When it is a full house and really intense you can work on lines of communication across the pitch but it might become irrelevant by the time it gets over there,” he said. “So before the game and at half-time is when you do your bit. If it is as noisy and as raucous as you want it to be, because then you enjoy the game more, it is difficult to pass on information.”