Hearts unveil Neil Critchley as new head coach

Andrew McKinlay unveils Neil Critchley as Hearts’ new head coach at Tynecastle.

Transcript

00:00Thanks very much for being here. I am delighted to confirm the appointment of our new men's

00:08head coach Neil Critchley. As you'll all know by now from what I've been saying over the

00:14last couple of weeks, this has been a new process for the club, complementing what you

00:20would call traditional recruitment methods. We've also been working with a data-led approach

00:26and those analytics have helped inform our decision making and this approach culminates

00:31in this announcement of Neil. I'd also like to mention Graeme Jones, who's our incoming

00:37sporting director, who's been involved throughout the process with myself and I'd like to thank

00:43again the Scottish FA for allowing him to do that for his assistance. Now Neil didn't

00:50only come out very strongly in the analytics but based on the recruitment process, our

00:55interview and after speaking to those who have worked with him, we are very confident

01:01in his ability to provide all the skills and experience needed to succeed as our head coach.

01:08I for one, at a personal level, am very much looking forward to working with Neil in this

01:14really exciting new chapter for the club. So thanks very much, I'll hand it over to yourselves.

01:22Neil, first of all, how excited are you about the challenge of coming in here?

01:26Yes, super excited. Very honoured to be in this position. I want to say thank you to

01:35Anne and Andrew and Graeme for giving me this opportunity. I know it's a huge responsibility

01:40to set up a fantastic football club. I'm super excited to get started and get going.

01:47It has been a tough start for Hearts this season. How big a challenge have you got ahead of you?

01:51Yes, it's a challenge but there's plenty of points and plenty of games to play. We know

01:58where we're at, we know what we need to do in the immediate. That started this morning,

02:05ready for our game on Saturday. I concentrate on the things that I've got responsibility

02:10for and what I can control.