Robbie Neilson’s tenure at Hearts had been going strong until the end of January, when the team was in third place after two 3-0 derby drubbings and a 5-0 defeat of Aberdeen. Since then, however, there has been an 11-point swing, with Aberdeen overtaking them on Saturday after Hearts’ 2-0 home defeat by St Mirren. This loss cost Neilson his job.
So what has gone wrong? Tiredness could be a factor, as the team was involved in European group stage football for the first time and players look fatigued. Neilson had the chance to address this with another good transfer window in January, but it didn’t work out that way. The two loan players brought in – Bournemouth defender James Hill and Newcastle winger Garang Kuol – have had little impact, and Yutaro Oda has started just once in seven outings. With Cammy Devlin struggling since his return from the World Cup and Orestis Kiomourtzoglou failing to impress since joining last summer, the centre of the pitch has proven a problem.
The reaction from fans has been growing grumbles, with one fan spraying a message outside Tynecastle beseeching Neilson to leave. Neilson himself said that the fans deserved better and that they should stick together and fight through it. However, the club’s hierarchy have decided that a change was needed to avoid further mutiny among the support.
It remains to be seen whether this decision was the right one. Neilson had done a good job up until recently, and it could be argued that he should have been given more time to turn things around. It is now up to the new manager to prove that this was the right call.