I am writing this article on a Tuesday. It will not appear online until Wednesday. And so there is every possibility that by the time you encounter these words, humanity and the world it inhabits will have been so irrevocably disfigured that they will cease to hold any relevance.

Will words still exist? Will humans even have eyes to read them? In these worrying times, nothing can be guaranteed. Never mind the collapse of the old European order. Never mind climate change. For Ian Cathro is the new Hearts manager, and we as a species are doomed.

Naturally, a statement as drastic as this requires a little context. Cathro is 30 and arrives at Tynecastle with a reputation as one of the brightest young coaches in Europe. The word “genius” is frequently used to describe him. And so, unless you know your football properly, it would be easy to regard his ascent with a certain optimism, perhaps even excitement. I certainly did.

But then I saw some of the reaction to Cathro’s appointment, and was instantly apprised of my folly.

“He’s never managed in his life,” said the former Motherwell defender Stephen Craigan, a proper football man. “For me Cathro is way, way out of his depth,” wrote Scotland international Kris Boyd, who, despite attending the same coaching course as Cathro, is also a proper football man.