Steven Naismith is no Hearts soft-soaper in dressing room and best bosses take no s*** - Ryan Stevenson

The word coming from the Hearts dressing room is ‘honesty’. Brutally so. Steven Naismith doesn’t soft-soap anything and it’s an approach I wholeheartedly applaud. It’s a lost art.

Football is full of players who can’t handle the truth. It’s a sport which has been allowed to put the sensitivities of professionals far too high up when it comes to telling like it is. More of them need to man-up and shoulder a bit of responsibility. Young players in particular struggle to confront facts they don’t want to hear so when I hear Naisy is telling it like it is, then honesty is the best policy.

He’s not the type to care about winning any popularity contests and he has a ruthless streak. Some of the squad may not agree with him but they should at least appreciate him being up- front and it’s what the club needs at this current crossroads. Some won’t like it, too bad.

I recall winning a game with Hearts at Motherwell and I came off the pitch feeling good about myself as I’d played well. Jim Jefferies was the boss and he walked into the dressing room and absolutely emptied me.

He told me if it I didn’t buck up my ideas I’d be back at Ayr in a flash. He tore me to shreds and I believe it was because I had played well and he wanted to bring me back down to earth by refusing to give me praise.

When I was younger I had it in my locker to be a bit big-headed. Now that I am older I appreciate why a manager would act in the way Jeff did. Paul Jewell did something similar to me when I scored in a win for his Ipswich side and he filleted me at full-time – and again I believe it was to make a statement.

As a young manager myself I take all of these experiences from the range of managers I worked under and my Glenafton dressing room is one of