John McGlynn ‘blinkered’ to frenzy of opinions

Published on Wednesday 28 November 2012 00:00

With some disgruntled Celtic
supporters proving there is no avoiding criticism of even the most successful managers, Hearts manager John McGlynn revealed he takes a blinkered approach to the all-encompassing scrutiny of modern-day football.

The Tynecastle manager was stunned to learn of the angry exchanges with fans in which counterpart Neil Lennon became embroiled during and after Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat by Inverness Caley Thistle. Coming hard on the heels of Celtic’s 2-1 Champions League win over Barcelona, it demonstrated the fickle nature of supporters.

“I was surprised because [Lennon’s] doing a great job,” he said of tonight’s opponent. “Over two games with Barcelona what happened wasn’t a fluke, they had a narrow defeat over there and then beat them at Celtic Park. So you go from one extent to the other. It just goes to show you football managers are human, no-one takes it worse than the manager himself. He’s the one who is even more disappointed when things don’t go right, and sometimes you’re fragile when these things happen.

“It would seem like you have to have a thicker skin these days. With the media attention, social networking and everything, people are talking about the game 24-7 now. Nowadays, it is not just a Saturday. The whole week involves fans participating in phone-ins, tweeting and all the rest. It just seems to have built up over recent years.”

Tynecastle has long been an unforgiving venue for Lennon, but McGlynn knows managers are just as likely to be confronted by supporters of their own team when things take a turn for the worse. “I remember when Raith Rovers had qualified for the play-offs [in 2008] but still had one league game to go,” he added. “We were playing Peterhead and I changed the team around a bit to keep some players fresh for the play-offs. This drunk guy came down to me at the end of the game and was giving me dog’s abuse. We got beat 5-2. Of course, that result was a bit of a blow but we had qualified for the play-offs so it didn’t really make any difference.

“I ended up having a verbal confrontation with this guy. I invited him into my office at 9am on the Monday morning but he never appeared. There is always a knee-jerk reaction at 5pm. When you lose a football match, people are not happy. I can understand it, I’m not saying fans shouldn’t react. But I think they have to look at the bigger picture.”

Football’s popularity means it is constantly in the public eye and McGlynn has confessed to having a simple relationship with the media. Always genial and ready to assist, he avoids wherever possible the pundits’ perception of his own team. “I listen to Talksport – because they never talk about Hearts!” he went on. “I stay away from it. I am blinkered. I listen to my backroom staff, of course, but I don’t look at the Scottish television stations or anything else.”

McGlynn, who has lost full-back Danny Grainger for a possible three months because of a cruciate ligament injury, has pored over DVDs of Celtic’s weekend defeat to devise a game plan for tonight. After a goalless draw with Motherwell at the weekend, he will make no apologies for adopting a similar approach. “We need to make sure we don’t let them get out of the blocks. We need to frustrate them, we need to try and make them nervous, take our chances and let them know they are going to be in a game,” said McGlynn.

Taken from the Scotsman