Chief Executive Officer Andrew McKinlay sat down with Hearts TV for his latest quarterly update. Supporters can watch the full interview here, but some headlines can be read below.
How happy are you and the board with the current form?
“I mean just absolutely delighted. I've said a few times and Derek has said a few times, let's see where we are after two rounds of fixtures and here we are after two rounds of fixtures. It's the first time in the season that everyone's played everyone home and away so you get a real judge of where you are and for us to be six points clear, I mean if you told me that at the beginning of the season I wouldn't have believed you, obviously I wouldn't have believed you.
“I think we're on a fantastic journey and you know long may it continue. We go into the final third before the split obviously and you know we had a very good first third and we got the same fixtures in this so let's hope we can do something like we did in that first third and that would just be fantastic.”
How have you found working with new Chair Calum Paterson?
“As with anyone that comes into a new role like that, there's certain things they'll want to do their way in certain styles but Calum's not come in to some sort of revolutionary change, he's come in at a time where we're in a great place, he's come in at a time when obviously the JTA piece and everything it all seems to be coming together at the right time.
“From a personal perspective I'm delighted to be working with him, it's really important for the Chief Executive who the chair is and the chair is someone that you know is there to support me, to help me but to challenge me as well and I'm really looking forward to working with him going forward. We had our first board meeting last night before the game and it was really good. We've got a good board, and we had some good discussions about things we're looking to do in January but also longer term on finances etc so it was really good and I really enjoyed it.”
How happy are you with the January business so far and can we expect any further movement?
“Very happy. I think everyone was well aware that we targeted a right back and to have done that before the window even opened, I think says a lot about our guys behind the scenes and how well we're run from a recruitment perspective. Thanks to Graeme Jones and Will Lancefield and the guys in that team and obviously the work they do with JTA.
“Chesnokov is one that we've been waiting on for a long time and I must admit a few times I thought is this ever going to happen so delighted that he's in the building, he's been on the bench for these two games, I think it's probably been unfortunate for him that we've gone down to 10 men, probably not the games you're going to bring on Chesnokov so that's a bit of a shame for him. So, maybe we'll see him on a Saturday night in the cup, and it'll be great if we did, I think we're all very excited about what he's going to bring to us.
“Rogers Mato, again another one, huge excitement and we are delighted. It wasn't the most straightforward deal to do and these deals never are but you know we've got it across the line from the pre-contract perspective and obviously we've got Josh McPake as well on the pre-contract for the summer, which I think shows that we still look, if we can, to bring in Scottish players as well as it's really important to us to try and keep a Scottish core to the team as well.
“Unlikely to do much else on the way in, we'll see. Things can change quickly with injuries, so we'll see, but obviously we're keen to get a few more out and we've got a few players that have gone out on loan and I'd like to thank those players and they're obviously still important to us but it's good for them to get some minutes elsewhere, so I wish them all the best to those that are going out on loan to other clubs.
“I sat down the other day with Graeme not to look at January but to look at the summer, so we're already looking at the squad for the summer and between now and then along with JTA, we will be planning on what we do in the summer to make sure we've got a squad to take us into whatever next season's going to bring us.”
You can watch Andrew’s interview in full on Hearts TV and YouTube.
