Hearts fans: what should Saint-Étienne supporters know about Ian Cathro?

[MaxAmory]

Hello Hearts supporters,
My name is Max Amory and I write for Peuple-Vert.fr, a French media outlet dedicated to AS Saint-Étienne, one of the biggest clubs in France.
As you probably know, Ian Cathro has recently been appointed as the new head coach of Saint-Étienne. I am currently working on an article about his previous experiences and I would really like to hear from Hearts supporters who followed his time at the club.

Beyond the results, I would be interested in your memories and opinions:

• What kind of manager was he on a daily basis?
  
• How did he deal with the media and the supporters?
  
• What was his style of football?
  
• Did you see qualities that perhaps people outside Scotland never noticed?
  
• Are there any anecdotes or moments that still stand out to you?
  

The aim is not to judge his spell at Hearts only through results, but to better understand the coach and the person before his arrival in France.
Any opinions, memories or stories would be greatly appreciated and may help Saint-Étienne supporters understand what kind of coach Ian Cathro is.

Thank you very much for your time.
Best regards

[1500 Dollars a Day]

He was a joke figure who played some of the most bizarre, shite, overly complicated football I’ve ever seen at hearts. There was a game we played against Aberdeen where he was trying to play some sort of inverted fullbacks and no one had a clue what they were meant to be doing, it was embarrassing.

He was arrogant that he thought he could apply Guardiola style football to basic players and refused to adapt to the team he had as that style of football was beneath him.

Looks like he’s matured into a good manager but the job was way too big for him at the time and he didn’t cope with it well. Ironically with hearts new set up with Tone Bloom/Jamestown Analytics Cathro would probably be well suited to us now.

It’s probably unfair to judge Cathro on his time here, hearts were not a good fit for Cathro and Cathro was not a good fit for hearts at that time. He was also chastised by Scottish media at the time before he had started because he dared to be a bit different and was a “laptop manager”. This was before that type of football and management properly took over.

[Grooto Toure]

Hey man, thanks for joining

I'll be honest his spell with Hearts isn't the best to judge him I'd say, out set up didn't benefit him as an inexperienced coach, our Director of Football at the time was Craig Levein who is the person that had got him originally involved with Dundee Utd. Levein undermined him on a regular basis there was one example where he had someone take a note form him in the Directors box down to Cathro in the dugout which gave people the impression Cathro was just effectively a puppet for him.

He also came across quite awkward in front of the media and with the general attitude within Scottish media to look down on coaches without a playing career that didn't help him either, there were also concerns than he had issues winning over the dressing room with rumours he pinned one of our strikers to the wall after a game.

[CritchSmile]

He was a joke figure who played some of the most bizarre, shite, overly complicated football I’ve ever seen at hearts. There was a game we played against Aberdeen where he was trying to play some sort of inverted fullbacks and no one had a clue what they were meant to be doing, it was embarrassing.

He was arrogant that he thought he could apply Guardiola style football to basic players and refused to adapt to the team he had as that style of football was beneath him.

Looks like he’s matured into a good manager but the job was way too big for him at the time and he didn’t cope with it well. Ironically with hearts new set up with Tone Bloom/Jamestown Analytics Cathro would probably be well suited to us now.

It’s probably unfair to judge Cathro on his time here, hearts were not a good fit for Cathro and Cathro was not a good fit for hearts at that time. He was also chastised by Scottish media at the time before he had started because he dared to be a bit different and was a “laptop manager”. This was before that type of football and management properly took over.

What the fuck, this is way too harsh

For the visitor: The job came too early for him and he was severely undermined by a club owner who put an unqualified Director of Football in as ‘mentor’ who tried to control things and instead of giving him his own guys, they gave him Austin mcphee as his assistant, who was more charismatic and very ambitious and quite a dominant character, while not having the footballing brain of cathro. mcphee is a set piece guy and doing his thing at Villa and Portugal now. He’s secured these roles to the very top of elite football through pure ambition and marketing himself effectively as a set piece guru, which demonstrates his personality type. The main issue was Craig Levein as director of football though. He was seen passing notes down from the stands from day one to the Cathro during games under the guise of ‘mentorship’ but it was Levein trying to manager through his younger coach. Levein the became manager and DoF post cathro, conveniently for him.

Cathro wasn’t able to stamp any sort of quiet authority on the player group in his first moments, partly because he was younger and had so many older heads in the DoF role and assistant coach role with their own agendas. The players have said that he put on good training sessions but it didn’t translate onto the field. The style of play wasn’t anything shocking like the above poster suggests, there were brief moments where we passed the ball about well but 90% of the time he just couldn’t get the team to carry out his instructions. I don’t know if the above poster is getting confused with Daniel Stendel suicide football.

The media was also on his back in a toxic way from day one. He’s an outsider in Scottish football and people are suspicious rather than intirigued by him. He doesn’t act like your typical Scottish manager so they don’t understand how he’s been successful. Rather than proud of this Scottish export, there wil be no coverage of him getting a big France job, and even if he does well, you don’t need to worry about him being considered for the national team job or rangers or Celtic. He’ll never be back in Scotland. The final analysis is that it’s impossible to judge Cathros first team coach capability from his Hearts time. He was a bit too young and inexperienced, more of an introverted guy so was overshadowed by bad actors in the club and the media and became out his depth very quickly. I think he would’ve learnt a lot from his time here though. Biggest lesson is only go into a club where you can have a bit of power to do things your way, as it was a fucked up time at Hearts. The media story is that it was sunshine and rainbows for the 10 years ann budge ran the club, but the reality is that it was a shambles behind the scenes in the “football department” though she did well with securing finance and stabilising the club from an organisational corporate stand point.

Cathro’s time here was a nothing burger and doesn’t provide any barometer of how he is now as a head coach. He started his second season with us, lost against Dunfermline in the early league cup groups before proper season started and that was that for him.

[Feliks Modrić]

He likes Powerpoint.

[Konnichiwa You Cunt]

He was pish.

[CritchSmile]

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He likes Powerpoint.

Ironically, I think it was McPhee who loves getting his PowerPoint out in front of Budge, the fans and any prospective employers.

Cathro is really good on the grass. He’s probably got the most sessions and drills out of any manager you could find. He’s been coaching since he was about 16 and meticulously records every session he does. There are a few young Dundee United players who went on to have succesful careers who attribute their success to getting more touches on the ball using Cathros methodology. That was when he was a teenager/early 20s

(For the OP ^)

[CritchSmile]

And any Hearts fans moaning about trying to do inverted fullback rotations with your full backs. That just more vindicates Cathro and makes Hearts fans look like mugs. Postecoglu came here a few years later and rinsed the league with those rotations. For whatever reason he couldnt get his instructions carried out on the pitch

[Edson Arantes 2Nascimento]

And any Hearts fans moaning about trying to do inverted fullback rotations with your full backs. That just more vindicates Cathro and makes Hearts fans look like mugs. Postecoglu came here a few years later and rinsed the league with those rotations. For whatever reason he couldnt get his instructions carried out on the pitch

Critchley tried the same thing and the players didn't know what to do. They weren't up to it. Part of being a good manager is knowing what your players are capable of.

[CritchSmile]

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Critchley tried the same thing and the players didn't know what to do. They weren't up to it. Part of being a good manager is knowing what your players are capable of.

Difference is that Cathro has proved he can do exactly that now. Critchley will go nowhere as a head coach in the game.

Pretty impressive that Cathro was doing the full back stuff years earlier than Pep etc… Critchley is no visionary that’s for sure.

[Zizou]

Cathro is very clearly a good coach, he was not ready to manage a big club when he got the Hearts job. Scottish football is generally about 10 years behind the rest and the media were mocking him from the minute he came in. laughing at him for using a laptop

I wouldn’t read much into his time here at all tbh. I think now he’s ready for a big job. Ironically he’d probably fit our set up quite well now.

[Feliks Modrić]

Cathro is very clearly a good coach, he was not ready to manage a big club when he got the Hearts job. Scottish football is generally about 10 years behind the rest and the media were mocking him from the minute he came in. laughing at him for using a laptop

I wouldn’t read much into his time here at all tbh. I think now he’s ready for a big job. Ironically he’d probably fit our set up quite well now.

[Scott the Dick]

Think Mak quite enjoyed Cathro's time at Hearts, I think seeing another very autistic person in a high profile job was really positive for him and was some what of an inspiration.

[Imaq]

Why am I catching strays ffs

[Ray Winstone]

Hopefully there is a good Burton Menswear outlet nearby.

[Shaun dot Lawson]

Imo he was far too young. Also the fact he hadn't played professionally made the squad disrespect him. So it was never going to work. His ideas I thought were decent but the above came into play. Not a bad guy but well out his depth.

[1500 Dollars a Day]

He obviously knows how football should be played but the players at the time didn’t and that didn’t mean he was going to try anything else until they did

I thought he bought into himself a lot as well but he was a young guy with a fairly big reputation as an upcoming coach so can see why was a bit like that.

It’s good to see he’s done fairly well as the media abuse he took was too much. Although his record with Estoril doesn’t look that great, I’m guessing he had them punching above their weight?

[The Fez Reich]

He was victimised by the media too for being a young wee gimp and utilising laptops pitch side to monitor the game.

I heard his coaching and training was unbelievable but just don’t think he had the man manager characteristics at that time.

As stated above he was hung out to dry by the DOF at the time.

[Snake Plissken]

The third-worst manager of my lifetime, just completely out of his depth at that point in his career.

He took over a squad that was second in the league and barely finished fifth. There was a brief spell where it looked quite promising when we beat Rangers 4-1 and then Motherwell 3-0 away in February. After that, we won exactly two games all season, both at home, against the teams that finished second and third from bottom. Lost to then-Championship Hibs in the cup and all but one of the post-split fixtures, a draw to Partick Thistle at home after going two down.

He was given decent backing in the summer of 2017 but signed a load of guff and lost to Peterhead and Dunfermline in the League Cup group stage. We'd have been in serious trouble of getting relegated if he'd stayed on; we were in absolute freefall. Any suggestion that he was capable of turning it around back then is just contrarian revisionism.

[CritchSmile]

1782063747[/url]']
The third-worst manager of my lifetime, just completely out of his depth at that point in his career.

He took over a squad that was second in the league and barely finished fifth. There was a brief spell where it looked quite promising when we beat Rangers 4-1 and then Motherwell 3-0 away in February. After that, we won exactly two games all season, both at home, against the teams that finished second and third from bottom. Lost to then-Championship Hibs in the cup and all but one of the post-split fixtures, a draw to Partick Thistle at home after going two down.

He was given decent backing in the summer of 2017 but signed a load of guff and lost to Peterhead and Dunfermline in the League Cup group stage. We'd have been in serious trouble of getting relegated if he'd stayed on; we were in absolute freefall. Any suggestion that he was capable of turning it around back then is just contrarian revisionism.

I doubt you’ll find a Hearts fan that thinks he was going to turn it around after Dunfermline. You can’t come back from that post match interview. Levein too busy “mentoring” his tactics rather than supporting him with professional media training that would’ve actually been useful.