Joe Savage in defiant Hearts future promise as sporting director insists he won’t leave Jambos for the money
Joe Savage insists he won’t be chasing a return south of the border as he explains what defines his Hearts relationship with Robbie Neilson.
The Tynecastle sporting director has received much praise for his work in the transfer market, which has helped establish the Jambos as Scotland’s third force. Despite a 2-0 defeat at Motherwell last weekend, they are once again in pole position to claim that Premiership spot, with Savage happy with the work in Edinburgh.
He’s previously spent time south of the border at clubs like Norwich City and Preston, but he’s telling The times Winning a trophy is one of the reasons he wants to stay in Gorgie for the long haul. He said: “I love the job and I love the club. I’d love to win something here. I’ve heard the stories about the open-top bus parades for the Scottish Cup. I’ve worked in England before, so I loved it.” Way of life, liked living down there. I’m in no hurry to leave here. If an opportunity presented itself, I would check it out. But I wouldn’t rush out for a little more money. One thing I’m into football is because it’s about winning things.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I’m not interested in fighting a relegation battle. That probably puts me out of three quarters of the jobs out there, but that’s the way I work.”
One of his key mantras when it comes to attracting the likes of Kye Rowles, Lawrence Shankland and Robert Snodgrass is that manager Neilson has the final say. Data is also used as an important pillar.
But Savage believes it’s important that boss Neilson – and every other manager – regardless of his opinion, gets the final say on who they want on their roster. He explained: “It’s crucial that you have a relationship with a manager and understand what they want from players.
“You don’t have to agree with him. It’s up to you to identify the kind of players he wants and he has to trust your eye to find those players, trust you to understand what he’s looking for.”
“The relationship between a chief scout, a football director and a manager is crucial. The manager has to really, really trust all the scouts to sign the right players because recruitment is so important. If you don’t sign the right players, the manager will be fired, so recruiting staff need to be held accountable and make sure that doesn’t happen.
“At Hearts we have KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for what we think a Hearts player looks like, how we want our right-back to play, how we want our center-back to play. You must tick these KPIs, but we are data-informed, not data-driven or data-led.
“We always meet the player. Robbie likes to look them in the eye and he’s brilliant, with all his experience here, which means he knows what it’s like. He explains to the players that they come to a cauldron, that it can be a difficult place to play.
“I don’t agree with any club that doesn’t give the manager the final say in signing a player, the manager has to make the final decision. If I sign a player that Robbie doesn’t rate we’re wasting money.”
“He trusts the process because he does all his due diligence, watching the player, getting character references. Me and the scout will give him a list of maybe five players. He never turned around and said he didn’t like any of them… He might like two or three and tell us to go and see what I can do.
“Then I step in and negotiate with the agent and the club. Robbie who sits down with the player is the most important part.
“It’s okay that I sell them the club. I don’t pick the team, I’m not the one who coaches them, when Robbie sits down with them you can see the guys absorbing everything he says. Touch wood, it’s worked for us.”