PlayStation jibe from Rangers hero Kris Boyd before my Hearts stint is everything wrong with Scottish football

PlayStation jibe from Rangers hero Kris Boyd before my Hearts stint is everything wrong with Scottish football

After reflecting on his brief time as Hearts’ manager, Ian Cathro maintains that he was constantly up against it in the capital due to Scotland’s stance against inexperienced managers.

After serving as a number two across the continent with Rio Ave in Portugal and Valencia in Spain, as well as assistant manager to Steve McClaren and later Rafael Benitez at Newcastle, the 38-year-old was hired by Gorgie in December 2016. Former Rangers striker Kris Boyd cruelly mocked his hiring in his daily column, calling Cathro out of his depth and implying that he hadn’t been all that thrilled since the release of FIFA 17 on the PlayStation.

In the end, Cathro’s time at Gorgie lasted just over seven months. The Jambos finished in fifth place in the Premiership, and Cathro was fired after a terrible League Cup campaign the following summer, where they were eliminated in the group stages. A year after leaving, the Dundee native returned to his position as a number two buy after Nuno Espirito Santo left for Wolves, Tottenham, and Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League. However, last summer, Cathro decided to try his hand at management again, taking over at Estoril, a top-tier team in Portugal. After 16 games, his team is currently comfortably in mid-table, aiming to improve on their 13th place finish from the previous season.

Additionally, Cathro has taken aim at his critics in Scottish football in an interview with journalist Henry Winter that was released in a series of articles on X and reflects on his brief time at Tynecastle. “I took away the space from somebody else,” he claimed. I didn’t play fives with the people who were writing the articles on a Wednesday night because I couldn’t get them on the phone. I was not in that small bubble at all.

A young Scottish coach who had previously worked at teams like Valencia and Newcastle but had never played was mentioned. Regretfully, there is a part of the Scottish psyche that would prefer to undermine that individual than to utilize them as an inspiration to others. Not all of them. But regrettably, it is undoubtedly a prevalent mentality.