OPINION Derek McInnes doesn’t hold Hearts grudge but I suspect he’ll have reason to pause when Tynecastle call comes – Keith Jackson

May 12, 2025 GG Scottish Football League-SFL 0

OPINION Derek McInnes doesn’t hold Hearts grudge but I suspect he’ll have reason to pause when Tynecastle call comes – Keith Jackson.

The Jambos will make an official approach for the Kilmarnock manager on Monday, and Keith believes Del will pause before responding.

Derek McInnes may need to think about his decision before accepting the invitation, as is expected this time.

Although he may have felt overlooked by Hearts when the manager’s position became vacant earlier in the season, he holds no ill will towards them.

McInnes was the obvious choice when Steven Naismith was ousted, and he remains so now that the Neil Critchley disaster has reached its unavoidable messy conclusion.

The Edinburgh team is likely to contact Kilmarnock within the next 24 hours to begin a conversation that should have started in October.

McInnes also wants the job. Have no doubt about it.

He’s had his eye on the Tynecastle hotseat for a long time, and he’s confident that he can establish the club as a genuine force in the Scottish game.

 

Having accomplished precisely this at Aberdeen during his eight-year reign at Pittodrie, his credentials are as close to flawless and ironclad as they get.

It’s the ultimate no-brainer appointment. Which is why McInnes may pause and think twice when his phone finally rings and he hears Ann Budge or Andrew McKinlay’s voice on the other end of the line.

Derek McInnes

  • It’s not a case of having his nose out of joint after a previous snub. Rather, it is a matter of determining whether the people who will be his employers are credible and worthy of his trust.

    And that is far from obvious given the mess they have made of calling the shots on behalf of the club’s supporters over the years.

    To be honest, there are some obvious red flags that McInness would have to be willing to ignore in order to shake hands and sign a contract that will bind him together with these trigger happy incompetents for the foreseeable future.

    And don’t think for a second that McInnes isn’t strong enough to say, ‘Thanks but no thanks,’ if he’s not convinced by what he hears when this conversation finally gets started.

    Let us not forget that this is the man who was willing to turn down the opportunity to fulfil his burning ambition of becoming Rangers manager nearly eight years ago, when it appeared that he was on his way to leaving the granite city behind.

    The allure of a return to Ibrox was too strong for McInnes to resist, and after a difficult conversation with owner and close confidant Stewart Milne, he decided to grasp the opportunity.

    McInnes was given time to think things through, and it was during this period of deliberation that he helped select the Rangers starting XI for a home match against Ross County on December 9th.

    And it wasn’t until the eleventh hour, when he had a goalpost-shifting phone conversation with then-chairman Dave King, that he changed his mind and decided to stay at Pittodrie.

    It was not a matter of turning Rangers down. No, McInnes concluded that he could not function effectively in his dream job while working for a nightmare of a man he knew he couldn’t rely on. He turned King down.

    It should also be noted that he made the agonising decision to leave the table after consulting with his trusted mentor Walter Smith.

    Smith saw McInnes as a kindred spirit and rated him highly as a leader of men, demonstrating the current Kilmarnock manager’s calibre and integrity.

     

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