Hiddink to decide next Hearts coach
THE newly appointed technical director of Accra Hearts of Oak, Rene Hiddink, has been handed the task to appoint the new coach for the club.
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As a result, he is due to name a new head coach this week to occupy the position which became vacant following the exit of the Serbian gaffer, Slavko Matic, in March this year.
Sources close to the club hinted the Graphic Sports last Friday that the 64-year-old Dutch tactician had been handed the task of selecting the most suitable from the list of applicants interested in the club's coaching job.
''Hiddink has started work, we have put together a technical team which is training twice each day with the assistant coach, we are expecting the coach, but we have not finalised the arrangement with him yet.
''He [Hddink] is the head of the whole technical team and will have a say in who becomes the next coach. The entire technical team will work under him,'' the source said.
The Graphic Sports gathered that the Phobians had received a number of applications from both local and expatriate coaches, and a deep-throat source indicated that the club's preference would be an expatriate coach.
''The local coaches, just as the foreign ones from Italy and other places, submitted their CVs and he [Hiddink] will virtually handle them. He will interview them and select one based on competence and technical skills,” the source hinted.
Information available to the Graphic Sports reveals that the Hearts management are eyeing some top local coaches who applied for the job but later joined other clubs, and thus limited the options available domestically.
Therefore, the Phobians are looking to signing an expatriate and avoid the risk of buying their former targets out of their existing contracts in the light of their past experience with signing former coach Samuel Boadu out of his contract with Medeama three seasons ago.
“Those who have committed themselves to other clubs and have signed contracts with other clubs, we don’t want to have anything to do with them because it would be expensive buying them out of their contract like it happened the last time,” added the source who explained that the club’s main criteria would be competence.
“For now we have kept our options wide open and what we are looking for is quality irrespective of where the person comes from.
“It is possible it could be a foreigner and very likely this week the name will come up and the technical team will inform the media.”
Even though the club appear running out of time with the 2023/24 football season set to start next month, the source said the delay in appointing a head coach would not affect Hearts much as the new technical director was working and putting the players in shape ahead of the start of the season.
