New Heart of Midlothian head coach Derek McInnes insists claims he likes to have total control of a club are simply not true.
Before it became clear the 53-year-old was set to swap Kilmarnock for Hearts, there was a belief among some that it wouldn't be a job suited to him because he doesn't like to work under a sporting director, with Graeme Jones in place at Tynecastle.
McInnes has never worked under that model during his time in Scottish football with St Johnstone, Aberdeen and Killie, and has instead had more of a jurisdiction over all areas of his clubs.
That meant he wouldn't be suitable for the Hearts hotseat, many thought.
However, he took the job on and was unveiled before the press at the beginning of this week, clearly delighted and excited in equal measure to be sat where he was.
McInnes insists there was never any issue around working alongside Jones and he's only worked the way he has before through necessity. He's looking forward to having some of the pressure taken off his shoulders by a sporting director and also the help of Jamestown Analytics in recruitment.
Read more: The Derek McInnes transfer approach that will have to change at Hearts
Manchester United legend Joe Jordan dumbfounded that club let Scott McTominay go
He said: “Jamestown analytics, for me, is music to your ears as a manager. They're dealing with all of that. Half my time as a manager is sifting through footage of players time and time again that clearly aren't good enough.
"You've wasted a lot of time and energy speaking to agents and clubs and building all these relationships just to try and get some sort of little advantage. Where I've been before, you're trying to get ahead of all these other clubs who are all in the same ballpark.
"We're all paying roughly the same money. We're all fishing in the same pond for players. We've all got similar relationships with agents and clubs. It's hard just to gain that little bit of advantage.
“I do think we have a huge advantage with the Jamestown stuff. It's important for us to try and utilise that.
"As for that whole narrative of me needing total control, it's a manager's job to control. As a head coach, you've got to control the day-to-day environment.
"You have to have some element of control if you're going to lead and be a manager. But that whole narrative about having total control and being dead against working with a sporting director or whatever, it's just not true. I've just never had the luxury or the opportunity to have one.”
McInnes also has a track record of signing mostly British players, or ones with experience of playing in the UK, signing only two that doesn't apply to.
But again, he insists he is not wedded to that policy and is looking forward to using Jamestown to give him the perfect blend of experience and knowhow of the league and exciting signings from abroad.
“I'm looking forward to working in different markets and different ponds, obviously," he added. "Even some players that have been put to me are players that wouldn't ordinarily be on the horizon. In the last few years, as a manager, I've been looking at the out-of-contract list, the free agent list, the loan market. Obviously, now we're looking at different ponds and different opportunities.
“I do think it's important that we bring players from different countries and the like. It's important that not every player that we sign at Hearts can be a project. Not every player that we sign at Hearts can be with a view to selling them on. It's not as if they're just visiting here and then they go elsewhere just because we can make a return.
“Obviously, it's a business and we still want to be able to do that. But I believe, and I spoke strongly about this to the board, that there has to be a culture within the Hearts dressing room that when players come from outwith, that they know this is how you act at Hearts. This is how we behave. This is how we turn up. This is how we train. This is what's expected of you.
“There has to be a core of British-based players here who see Hearts as the club they're going to be at over the next few years and they remain constants within that. I really believe firmly on that. When a lot of lads come from overseas and need to get that integration, I think when you sign players from abroad, they work better and they work to their full potential when the culture is driven from within. That culture is driven from how we are at Hearts day-to-day."
