Going it alone

JOHN MCGLYNN is only starting out on his managerial career, but his place in the history of modern Scottish football is already secure. No matter what he achieves in the decades to come, a footballing footnote in the archives will always recall him as the only frontline Scottish coach capable of maintaining a "working relationship" with Vladimir Romanov.

The former Hearts assistant manager - and not so occasional stand-in boss - announced he was no longer content to be a permanent understudy when he left to pursue his own managerial ambitions at Raith Rovers three week ago, but 22 months under the Lithuanian qualifies him for a long service medal.

"You are well paid for doing a professional job and that is what the job was," McGlynn said. "We are professionals, we have to concentrate on the football side of things, and I think maybe Mr Romanov respected me for doing that. I am football daft so I got on with my job and let other people get on with the off-field hassles. He wasn't always at the football club, it wasn't as if you were bumping into him every day.
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"We tried to keep the football players focused on the job, and after all the things that happened last year, the team still finished second and won the Scottish Cup. That was a great achievement for Hearts Football Club, even though some people would say we missed a great opportunity to win the league. That will be for others to speculate on."

Yet McGlynn is hardly an apologist for the Romanov regime. Like most of the other exiles from Edinburgh, McGlynn signed a confidentiality agreement with the club on his departure but there continues to be some differences of opinion. McGlynn, for instance, believes that his achievements as a caretaker manager on a number of occasions (particularly after George Burley's departure, when in tandem with Steven Pressley, he recorded three wins and one defeat) were sufficient for him to be given consideration at maintaining the top job. That history also means that he instinctively sympathises with Pressley in the row at the root of the Scotland centre-half's recent departure from the club.

"I feel for Steven because he has put a lot into Hearts over the years,"

McGlynn said. "You honestly couldn't put a price on the help I got from him through the period after George Burley left. It was so beneficial to have him on the training ground, making sure that everything was ticking along nicely. In all these difficult circumstances he was a great leader and inspiration to the players. He kept them focused on the football despite the fact that off the field there were a lot of things going on."

The dramas in McGlynn's own playing career were more of the kitchen sink variety. There was a trial stint at Raith as a 17-year-old, a move to Bolton Wanderers soon afterwards that never really paid off, and a return to part-time Berwick Rangers while serving as a plumber, but in managerial terms the gradient has been remarkable. Lessons learned at Easthouses Lily in the East of Scotland league soon took him to Hearts, and in the seven years since there has been an ever-multiplying number of responsibilities and chores.

There has been a fair share of success too. Youth Cup and League wins in 2001 and 2002 respectively are still treasured, as is his part in last season's Scottish Cup win. In the absence of getting the chance to make the top job his own, more mundane triumphs, like the performance of academy graduate Jamie Mole in the Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens, provide almost as much satisfaction.

"I felt that I did a good enough job in that last period after the departure of Burley that I might have been considered for it at that time," McGlynn said. "I think I would have had more chance of getting the Hearts job than any other in the SPL because people could see what you are doing within the football club, while my playing background was maybe not good enough for other clubs to take a chance."

As far as the caretaking duties were concerned, McGlynn's groundhog day typically involved learning a matter of hours before a match that the coach had left and that he was going to have to stand in.

"You just looked upon it as a challenge," McGlynn says. "You didn't really have a lot of time to think about it. On the Saturday morning the day of the Dunfermline game at home, George Burley was removed from his duties and you were stuck up on the platform and it was more or less just sink or swim really. I only found out hours before kick-off so I didn't have a lot of time to think about it, or how the players were going to feel about it."

McGlynn's desire to be his own man has only crystalised in the past six months or so.

"I have always wanted to do it, but in the last six months it became an even greater desire for me, as if to say this is going to happen soon' or I need to take a chance soon'," he says. "At times over the years it would float into your mind, but I was still learning from some good managers, and you want to take as much information from them. In football the timing is always unpredictable, but the timing of this job was probably ideal. Having won the cup it might have been a good time to go out at that point, on a high, but the lure of Champions League football was a big one."

McGlynn comes in at Raith, following on seamlessly from Craig Levein, with whom he worked for four years, and on the current Dundee United boss' recommendation. He inherits Levein's assistant Gary Kirk, and, judging from a laptop, statistical accessories in the Stark's Park manager's room for updating every aspect of the Kirkcaldy club's footballing administration.

"I am trying to implement some of the things that I had at Hearts, having worked with youth players for a good period of my career. I know a lot of good housekeeping habits, and we are just trying to enhance things and improve things at a football club that has maybe been in a bit of decay in the last few years and needs a kick up the backside to get it going."

First up is trying to remove Raith from the lower reaches of the Second Division, and one player McGlynn has inherited to help with this aim is Hjalmar Thorarinsson, the Icelandic striker on loan from Hearts. He wants to keep in the good books enough to land some others. Perhaps that is why McGlynn remains confident that there is reason somewhere behind the Romanov regime.

"I have left at a time where Hearts aren't doing as well as anyone would have liked. But I have to say that is just a coincidence. I think ultimately they will be successful. Every club goes through a spell where it is not quite happening. I am sure that Mr Romanov has long-term views for Hearts, to extend the stadium and make it better and bigger, it will cost a lot of money and he is willing to put it in. Getting over this moment in time, Mr Romanov must know what he is doing, and in the longer term the Hearts fans need to trust him on that."

That is one trust fund which is running out quickly.

Taken from the Sunday Herald