Cathro Interview

[Coco]

Strange fellow and a bizarre management choice for Hearts.  This and his previous job advert in the American press and his interviews at Hearts all follow the same tread.  All my, I, mine as if he is the Way and the Truth in football.  Dining out on coaching a couple of players as children who have achieved little so far.

 

Look at what Clarke has done at Killie.  If he had followed Cathro's Way then Boyd would never get a game.  But Clarke has recognised the true strength of the group of players is to get Boyd the ball from crosses and in the penalty box - and that allows one of the best finishers in Scottish football ever to have taken Killie up the league.

 

It's not difficult to be a football manager in Scotland.  Look at the squad, sign some good players to fit.  Play an aggressive strong game.  Adapt tactics against the stronger teams.  Have a good dressing room of the right characters and mix of ages and experience.  One or two special players in the squad.  And don't have Cathro as your manager.

 

[Taffin]

18 minutes ago, Coco said:

Strange fellow and a bizarre management choice for Hearts.  This and his previous job advert in the American press and his interviews at Hearts all follow the same tread.  All my, I, mine as if he is the Way and the Truth in football.  Dining out on coaching a couple of players as children who have achieved little so far.

 

Look at what Clarke has done at Killie.  If he had followed Cathro's Way then Boyd would never get a game.  But Clarke has recognised the true strength of the group of players is to get Boyd the ball from crosses and in the penalty box - and that allows one of the best finishers in Scottish football ever to have taken Killie up the league.

 

It's not difficult to be a football manager in Scotland.  Look at the squad, sign some good players to fit.  Play an aggressive strong game.  Adapt tactics against the stronger teams.  Have a good dressing room of the right characters and mix of ages and experience.  One or two special players in the squad.  And don't have Cathro as your manager.

 

 

 

That's very true but also depressing and why I wanted Cathro to succeed. I don't want Scottish football to be the place where lobbing the ball into the likes of Kris Boyd is effective. I'd rather watch a league where a Cathro philosophy suceeded.

 

That said, he couldn't convey it, he's too stubborn bordering on narcissistic delusion and I'm glad he's gone.

[Bazzas right boot]

1 hour ago, Shedro said:

He was hired because it kept Levein in overall charge, simple as that. 

 

 

Oh deary me.

[Captain Bubblebeard]

I’ve never actually heard/read him fully expanding upon what “his way” is and what is unique about it. Not being facetious here - genuinely interested but just too lazy to research. Reading that Mail article was a struggle in itself and if those are the highlights of a in-depth interview, I can see why perhaps being subjected to that all day, every day as a player could lead to the apathy we witnessed last year.

[manaliveits105]

You almost think we were due to play Rangers 

[Special Agent Dale Cooper]

Wow that was a painful read. Cathro's narcissistic ramblings combined with the journalist's waffling, poorly written crap has given me the mother of all migraines.

[deejtee]

Reading that leads me to two conclusions.

1/ I should have walked the dog instead of reading it

2/ Thank goodness he finally got the sack he should have done earlier.

How did it take some so long to jump off his bandwagon?

[1971fozzy]

Reading it again it’s a shocking interview tha tells us the square root of fek all. Only what we already knew and  that was he was so far up his own ass it was a hopeless appointment.

Id only add that his complete failure here doesn’t seem to of made him want to change his ideas , in fact if anything it seems to of strengthened his belief in himself and his masterplans for perfect football. I would be stunned if any football club of any note would take a gamble on him .

[1971fozzy]

59 minutes ago, Highways and Byways said:

He speaks about him going against his own rules and joining us mid season.

 

He doesn’t mention that he was given carte blanche to rip up the squad he had inherited and sign 9 (I think?) players of his choosing.

 

Surely those players will have been signed because they fitted Cathros ideal?

 

Then he WAS given the pre season he talks about and that ends with us being embarrassed in the league cup group stages.

 

Don’t wish him any ill will but I find that interview very difficult to comprehend. Much like I did with the many interviews whilst he was with us.

 

People are often quick to have a go at Levein for how he sets his teams up but I’d rather be watching a Craig Levein Hearts side than anything I ever seen under Ian Cathro.

 

[E6 Inc]

Strange man, think the Philosophy of his is probably well grounded but it would need a superb man manager to implement it. Unfortunately for Cathro he doesn't have that skill.

 

Wish him no harm, it didn't work, I hope we don't have to speak about him too much, would rather wipe the memory.

 

We have Levein, I'm delighted with that. If and when Levein leaves we'll hopefully replace him with another seasoned manager.

[lewis2006]

If slavering utter shite won you points then that wee Gimp would have hoovered up the league.

[Don Dan]

He came with so much promise. He was going to be a radical change to the current same old round robin managers and coaches and make  Hearts a different club by using his new methods. Sadly it was an unmitigated failure. We tried to change the status quo but whether or not his methods and philosophy were in fact radical enough to change things his personality got in the way. We will never know now.

 

[Elshin]

To start with that was a very poor article.

 

On cathros points/ramblings, he comes across as so arrogant with only 1 view of the game. No wonder he failed when in charge.  He comes across as a coach who i gather can come up with impressive coaching drills.  It looks like it then takes a manager to use these to impliment them into a game. 

 

Cathro talks about a high press etc yet we rarely seen anything like that at tynie, he himself signed players that could not play the high press.  

 

Im glad he is away from our head coach position, he will likly make a good career as a coach and fair play to the lad but i cant see him making it as a manager for a long time.  

[Bring Back Paulo Sergio]

Let me guess, not his fault?

[Bauld]

Should never have ripped the team up in January. It wasn't perfect but it had gelled into a unit.

 

Abandoned fitness and hard work. Cardinal sin in Scotland. In our game the team with the fitness and the work ethic usually wins the game. 

 

I admire his work as a coach but his philosophy is flawed when put into practice. He has to pay more attention to fitness, work rate, chance creation and much less on safe possession.

[Forza Cuore]

Not reading his slavers. Still think English is his 3rd language.

[Jocam2325]

The problem is that everyone is out of step except Cathro.

 

What a slavering self indulgent clown of a man. That much was evident from the very first interview he gave whilst at Hearts.  Will never be a decent manager. 

[obua]

Ian Cathro 

[innerjambo]

After reading the article, I think he should be sectioned, or at least attend regular therapy sessions with a psychiatrist. The man/boy clearly has issues.

[Crete]

What a boring article.

[DVB]

I thought at least the Hearts team would have good training sessions under him but the video posted on here at the end of last season showed even that was awful.

[Tasavallan]

As people on JKB will know, I had confrontations with him when he was running his youth academy in Dundee.  I know one parent  of a lad at Utd, who ended up having a swing at him due to his treatment of his charges.  Lad moved to St J.  None of the parents liked him but he got results with kids but I always doubted his philosophy would work with adults.

[Jamboelite]

11 hours ago, Enzo Chiefo said:

Nonsense. I buy it every day and it's a lazy left-wing stereotype to describe at as a "rag". It deserves a lot of credit for its campaign to bring the murderers of Stephen Lawrence to justice. Most of its critics do tend to be sleazy celebrities or politicians with totalitarian leanings which tells you all you need to know really.

Its a ****ing rag and most who read it are morons...

 

its a hate filled rag playing to the dumb.

 

Anyhoo onto Cathro and his 14pages of saying nothing.

[Adam_the_legend]

It truly is like English isn’t his first language and I don’t mean that as an insult. His communication style is baffling, almost as baffling as his unwavering confidence in “his way” and inability to adapt. 

 

Will never be a Manager. 

[WalterWhite]

I would cringe when he would call it 'this experiment' his singings were poor. Am so glad we have Craig. Although I would like to see Cathro's 'experiment' at a championship side see if it actually do a better job with it.

[Lord Beni of Gorgie]

Dreamer. Unfortunately football is about pragmatism and results unless you join one of the elite. 

 

Wants to run before he can walk. Straight to the home run.

 

Good luck 

[Shanks]

Came across as a total weirdo. 

[All Out Attack]

Even after all this time, he still doesn't get it. Football teams have to win or you fail. 

 

He should never have been put in charge of our club our size and was kept on far too long, when it clearly wasn't working. 

 

 

[Jamboelite]

When people say he should never have been taken as manager there is a fair amount of revisionism going on as it was almost a universally held position it was a good appointment.

 

I do agree we kept it going too long and im guilty as any of giving him too much time in the hopr it would work.

[Seymour M Hersh]

So as a précis Hearts took a chance on a highly rated but untested young coach. It didn't work. Should have parted company earlier is my only complaint tbh.

[Enzo Chiefo]

23 minutes ago, Jamboelite said:

Its a ****ing rag and most who read it are morons...

 

its a hate filled rag playing to the dumb.

 

Anyhoo onto Cathro and his 14pages of saying nothing.

Exactly the view I have of the Guardian, the National etc, peddling naive, drivel and appealing to the easily convinced That's the beauty of freedom of speech though..everyone has their own opinions.

[jr ewing]

Deary me.

[The Duke]

Could barely keep a straight face reading that guff!

 

What is that guy on?

 

Self styled football visionary with Jedi like powers. Meanwhile back in the real world we have a head coach who knows what he’s doing and we are back to winning games!

 

The Cathro era is like a bad dream!

[Adam_the_legend]

6 minutes ago, Seymour M Hersh said:

So as a précis Hearts took a chance on a highly rated but untested young coach. It didn't work. Should have parted company earlier is my only complaint tbh.

 

8 minutes ago, Jamboelite said:

When people say he should never have been taken as manager there is a fair amount of revisionism going on as it was almost a universally held position it was a good appointment.

 

I do agree we kept it going too long and im guilty as any of giving him too much time in the hopr it would work.

 

6 minutes ago, Seymour M Hersh said:

So as a précis Hearts took a chance on a highly rated but untested young coach. It didn't work. Should have parted company earlier is my only complaint tbh.

Totally agree. Thought it was a great forward thinking appointment and worth the risk...until it clearly wasn’t 

[By the light]

He’s wired to the moon. Shite article. Shite manager. Delusional muppet

[Jamboelite]

17 minutes ago, Enzo Chiefo said:

Exactly the view I have of the Guardian, the National etc, peddling naive, drivel and appealing to the easily convinced That's the beauty of freedom of speech though..everyone has their own opinions.

Absolutely.

[Back to 2005]

There is nothing in that article that tells me anything about his time at Hearts.

[redjambo]

Cathro's own unwavering self-belief is ironically what will result in him never being successful at management.

 

Always question yourself, always question your methods, always look for ways to improve yourself, to adapt and to take on new ideas.

 

There is no "The Way". As soon as you blinker yourself to everything outside your belief system, you're heading up a dead end.

[socrates82]

Cathro gets a very long feature with an obviously sympathetic journalist in a national, albeit shite, newspaper to make his case and effectively sell himself to future employers and fails dismally to get his points across and everyone is still in the dark about his football philosophy. As long as he thinks it’s everybody elses fault for not understanding him he’ll never make it as a manager.

[kila]

Here is the text:

 

 

--

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5429079/Cathro-talks-time-rocky-reign-Hearts.html

 

 

'I broke my own rules. I won’t blame anyone else': Ian Cathro talks for first time about his rocky reign at Hearts

Scenes from a life less ordinary. The boy leaves his home in the Dundee cul-de-sac to be the first on the patch of grass with a ball and is always the last to leave.

The 15-year-old takes a school project and turns it into a soccer school that will produce two of Scotland's most intriguing prospects.

The 18-year-old heads home early from a Friday night out with mates, believing this gives him an advantage over other coaches who will be staying out to enjoy themselves.

 

Ian Cathro was named Hearts boss in December 2016 but sacked the following August

At 22, he is approached by Guillem Balague, of TV fame, and Gaizka Mendieta, of Valencia fame. He is asked if he wants to head their coaching team at a plan to revive a Spanish lower-league team.

'I was too green. I wasn't quite ready to leave home,' says Ian Cathro. He had been recommended by Andre Villas-Boas, then manager of Porto, whom he had met through an introduction from the SFA's Jim Fleeting.

The location switches to Largs, where Cathro meets Nuno Espirito Santo (now Wolves manager) on a coaching course.

'I did something different and Nino was marching towards me,' adds the Scot. 'He said that's really interesting. Let's talk. The very first conversation was remarkably honest, direct. He would tell me things to my face that people in our culture would say behind my back.' There are more conversations as Nuno recruits Cathro to Rio Ave in Portugal and then Valencia. There is success at both clubs. The Scot moves to Newcastle to work with Steve McClaren and then Rafa Benitez. He is not yet 30.

And then there is Heart of Midlothian. He is named head coach in December 2016, sacked the following August. There is a temptation to believe the cascade of football scenes ends with a young man leaving the game he loves bruised and bewildered. It should be resisted.

There is no fade to black, rather a future of bright promise. Cathro will be back at work next season in England or in Europe.

 

Cathro worked at Valencia with Nuno Espirito Santo, now the manager at Wolves

He is ready for new scenes. Cathro and football, after all, is a love story. The Heart-rending leaves no bitterness, only a resolution to stick by principles formed over years in the boy who coached his school friends, the adventurer who prospered on foreign fields.

'I went against what I believed. I will never do that again,' he says of accepting the position of head coach at Hearts. 'My conditions for my first job as a head coach were, first, to start in pre-season and, second, bring my own staff.' 'Neither was met. It was a decision contrary to what I had set out in my mind.

'The process is always about putting yourself in the situation that gives you the most chance of success. I found myself with a proposal that came quickly. The whole thing occurred over a couple of days. It was a combination of a bit of impatience and a touch of naivety on my part. I broke my rules.' He adds: 'I probably didn't speak to enough people who would have given me the alternative view. For those two days, I really had only conversations with people who wanted me to take it or who I knew would be positive about it.

 

The Scot went from Valencia to Newcastle to work with Steve McClaren and then Rafa Benitez

 

'On reflection, I am disappointed in myself for those couple of days. But you grow, you become stronger, you move forward, you get better. I am glad that having lived through it, I have reached the clarity I now have.' He eschews recrimination of any others. 'I won't blame anyone else. I have no intention of ever doing that. That won't help me do what I want to do. I don't have any negative feelings towards anyone at the club,' he insists.

The scene is now an Edinburgh restaurant where Cathro talks passionately about football. The film metaphor is extended by a gradual realisation that he was in the wrong movie at Hearts.

There is a perception that Cathro was isolated at Tynecastle. His football philosophy is laced with more than a touch of romance and he may have felt alone in a culture of pragmatism. He does not say any of this, restricting himself to this observation: 'Football is hard. Losing is tough and it is even more difficult if you are the only guy in the room who thinks the way you think. You are in the wrong room. I put me in the wrong room.

'I don't blame Craig (Levein) or Ann (Budge) or whoever else. I take responsibility for the decisions I make in my life or in my career.' Cast ludicrously as a nerd with a laptop, he is also measured about the criticism he received from those such as Kris Boyd, who claimed Cathro had no personality and could not command respect in the dressing room.

Cathro does not identify his critics by name, but says: 'It's curious that someone who leaves everything that is normal to him, learns two different languages, works in a good league in Portugal, then goes on to a monster club at Valencia to be part of success there, works at what is called the best league in the world… to think somebody who does that has no personality or leadership qualities or the ability to communicate or gain respect - surely that says more about the people who hold that view than about me.' On the relationship with players, he says: '£10 a week or £15million a year, win or lose, training session or match day, if a player believes that what you are saying makes sense, can help the team and help him be better for the team and for himself, then that's it.

'They will decide whether they value you or not. I have never felt that has not been the case. I never worried about it.' The last sentence is the most revealing. Cathro is nobody's victim. He has been buoyed by a belief in what he does, what he seeks to achieve.

How else could the schoolboy organise a training session that would include future stars such as Ryan Gauld or John Souttar? How else could a 20-something discuss football ideas with Nuno, Benitez or Villas-Boas?

'I could not go to Walter Smith and pretend I know more about football than he does. But I know more about my football than Walter Smith knows about my football,' he adds.

So what is Cathro's game? He explains: 'As far back as the school classes, it wasn't come here and you'll get better at football. It was come here and you will learn my way. If you like it, great. You will get better in a specific way. You will not get better in every way because I don't care about every way in football. There is a way of loving football and I can transmit that. But not in other ways. I am not interested in other ways.' The philosophy can be crudely summarised by the motto on his school coaching class: 'Master the ball, master the game'.

'It is about thinking about the game,' he says. He came up with possession drills, scenarios that stressed the need to stay in space, to find angles, to dull, even neutralise physical force.

The basic tenets did not change as he moved from St John's, Dundee, to Rio Ave in Portugal or to La Liga or the Premier League.

'I was always watching or thinking about football,' he admits. 'I'd draw up training sessions and put them in notebooks. I'd scrutinise the game through my eyes. No one could tell me it was all right to lob the ball up the front. I don't accept it now. I didn't accept it then.

'People thought: "Who is this guy?". I didn't care, don't care. I don't proclaim my way is better. It is just that I am so disinterested in the other way that I don't waste time on it. I want to come up with ideas that support my way. That's why I devote so much time to it.' Cathro relishes talking about his love for the game. 'Every coach will have something that gives them the most inspiration, the most joy,' he says. 'Where I stand on that will never change. Having the ball, seeing your opponent need to drop back, stopping a team being able to press you, locking them in. The feeling that the ball is ours. I would get a physical feeling of joy.' He has devoted most of a short life to the game. He ran up debts on his credit card to visit Porto regularly and watch Villas-Boas work. He has tested his mental strength by heading to a country to coach with not one word of the native language.

'When Nuno became a head coach and asked me over the phone to join him, it was a case of: "Right, pack the bag", he says of his appointment at Rio Ave.

'The first couple of days in Portugal were testing. I didn't speak the language and there was a moment when I asked: "Can I manage this?". But once there was a ball moving, I knew I could do it.' It all comes back to an attachment that owes little to attracting fame, less to accumulating a fortune.

'I didn't really want to go into the professional game. But the boys became older and Dundee United wanted to bring them and me into their new academy,' he says.

The recent past has strengthened him. 'I am thankful circumstances have given me this time. I have come off the tracks, slowed down and reflected. I am happy and excited about the future,' adds Cathro.

He still has the notebooks on which he committed his football ideas as a teenager.

He says: 'I go back to them on the dark days because it brings back the love I have about football.' There will be more drama in Cathro's life. Only a fool would dismiss a happy ending. 

[Jingle Bells]

 Allot of Portuguese teams are fairly robotic , rigidly maintaining "shape" (no matter what the game scoreline is) believing that will eventually bring them a result, rather than being reactive.

Dull as dish water, imho.

[Cruyff Turn]

Cathro slavers pish.

 

We'd have been relegated if the footballing genius was in charge this whole season. 

[kila]

I think it is clear Cathro is a very good academic. He created Box Soccer which has massively helped Dundee United and Hearts youth setups, and ultimately Scotland when these youngsters get caps.

 

I don't think he has much in the way of people skills, and every interview confirms that. He's very plain and direct, there's no charisma. From what players said about him, they all bought into his ideas and there's plenty evidence from Box Soccer that his ideas work. But I don't think the players liked him much, his people methods and handling the dressing room.

 

I would love to see Cathro in some key coaching setup role at a new make up SFA. He's clearly got the skills to create impressive coaching setups, so long as he isn't the person taking them. I hope his lack of charm doesn't mean Scotland miss out on his influence behind the scenes.

[Bridge of Djoum]

If he says anything other than he was backed and trusted to the hilt but was nowhere near good enough, he's lying.

[King prawn]

That was an awkward read. Glad he's no where near the club.

 

Whatever his philosophy, it's embarrassing that a Hearts team were emptied out of a competition that included Peterhead, Elgin and Dunfermline.

 

If Jon Daly can see the players are unfit then surely this 'mastermind' should have recognised that too.

[Geoff Kilpatrick]

1 hour ago, Jamboelite said:

When people say he should never have been taken as manager there is a fair amount of revisionism going on as it was almost a universally held position it was a good appointment.

 

I do agree we kept it going too long and im guilty as any of giving him too much time in the hopr it would work.

I don't think it is revisionist. Rather, we knew that Levein thought highly of him and that his box soccer school was helping to develop players at youth level. The reality, however, was somewhat different but because arseholes like Boyd were so against him from Day 1, we as fans gave him more latitude than he deserved because proving wankers like Boyd wrong would have been even sweeter.

[Half time pie]

Cathro truly is a legend In his own lunchtime. He’s become a victim of his own hype.

[OTT]

His lack of interest in other ways of playing will hold him back from successful management. Very few successful teams are not flexible enough to know how to play hoofball when they need to. Look at managers like Mowberry or Rodgers. Decent managers that play nice football but will never succeed at the very top. Contrast that with managers like Ferguson or Mourinho who at times play brutal football but get results.

 

[jambali]

He wasn't one of CLs better decisions.

[Zico]

The article demonstrates why he won’t succeed as a manager. Arrogance and poor communication skills are a bad combination when managing groups of people.