Neil Critchley was ONLY Hearts choice as Andrew McKinlay goes inside Starlizard recruitment process

Andrew McKinlay insists Neil Critchley was the ONLY new manager candidate Hearts "negotiated with" and thinks fans will be as positive as he is about the appointment.

Critchley was confirmed as Steven Naismith's replacement on Tuesday, although punters were far from enthused at the prospect of the former Blackpool and QPR boss taking over. He's been placed in the Tynecastle hot seat until the end of 2026/27 season, and his priority will be getting the Jambos off the foot of the Premiership table by beating St Mirren on Saturday.

Despite reports last week that ex-Rosenborg and Hacken head coach Per Mathias Hogmo was the preferred candidate and was in talks over the gig before they collapsed, McKinlay insists that wasn't the case, although stressed that Critchley was the only man they "negotiated" with rather than had a conversation. He explained that Critchley was the top choice based on the Starlizard algorithm, which Hearts are using amid investment talks with Brighton owner Tony Bloom, and that it was important the capital club committed fully to the process.

"Neil was the preferred candidate from an analytics perspective," he said. And also when he spoke with us, it was very clear that he was the right person to work with us and to work with the analytics.

"It would be strange at the start of a strategic partnership if we didn't go into it fully and wholeheartedly. So that's where we got to with Neil. We didn't negotiate with anyone else. I've had a lot of names thrown at me over the past week. Neil was the only person we negotiated with.

"The analytics only guides us. It was crucial to us that anyone we spoke to was happy working within a sporting director model. there's been a lot of talk about a lot of people, in