Sometimes the feeling prevails that Scottish football deserves all it gets. Certainly, when asking why the country’s national sport has been reduced to laughing‑stock status for so long, events of recent weeks would serve as a useful reference point. Where the attitude of the dark age is so prominent, where hypocrisy is rife, it really is no shock that Scotland continues to fail.

Heart of Midlothian’s courting of Ian Cathro as the head coach to replace Robbie Neilson triggered some quite astonishing coverage. Cathro, at 30, has now taken over at the Edinburgh club. He has realised the extent to which pre‑conceived agenda hits home, not that, thankfully, anybody who knows Cathro thinks he will care one jot.

Amongst those to publicly express concern were Stephen Craigan, a youth development coach at Motherwell, Jamie Fullarton – recently manager of Notts County for 12 games, winning three – and Kris Boyd, a player as notable throughout his career for what he couldn’t do as what he could.

This has not been astute opinion forming. Rather, it represents crass demeaning of someone who deliberately ploughed his own furrow. Cathro has crammed more into the past eight years than the majority of Scottish coaches sample in a career.

During his journey, Cathro has dealt with professionals of a far higher level than he will ever encounter in Edinburgh. Whatever other issues may ensue, he is unlikely to quiver at the thought of giving dressing-room instruction to Conor Sammon and Robbie Muirhead.

Hearts appoint Ian Cathro as their new head coach Read more

Boyd used his newspaper column to insist Cathro will be “way, way out of his depth” after issuing needlessly personal jibes relating to the Hearts coach’s supposed immaturity. Man management, Boyd asserted, “is a part of the game he knows absolutely nothing about”. This appears to be based on Boyd encountering a “shy” Cathro at a Uefa Pro Licence course.

This willingness to lacerate a young, innovative coach before he has even been pictured with a scarf above his head is one thing. The same language was not used when it emerged Rangers held talks with Cathro in 2015, just as when the Ibrox club’s former managers and current chairman speak of a need for over-investment, thereby ignoring the sins of the past, this is merely accepted at face value.

More serious is the ignorance with which Cathro has been treated. It is endemic of the attitude which holds Scotland back. The country appears petty and parochial, as if it wants this outsider – Scottish himself, remember – to fail. Only on Saturday, further small‑mindedness was apparent as Mark McGhee, manager of Motherwell and assistant to the Scotland national team, claimed he did not know the name of Celtic’s assistant manager Chris Davies. McGhee welcomed Davies, by name, in his programme notes of the same day.

Nobody in Scotland can legitimately preach from a position of great power. If Hearts want to be bold and different, where is the harm?

On one hand, people bemoan systematic failure. On the other? Let’s mock someone who thought outside the box. If Hearts lose at Ibrox on Saturday, as they may well do given a dismal away record, Cathro will be whacked by yet another wave of negativity.

Of course, Cathro represents a risk for Hearts; just as Neilson was when plucked from under-20 coaching in 2014. That did not play out too badly. The reality is any appointment at any level of the game, let alone one as low as Scotland, may not succeed.

Cathro may be the victim of inverted snobbery. His pathway to the top flight took him from his own football school to Dundee United, Rio Ave in Portugal, Valencia and Newcastle, where Rafael Benítez thought the young Scot worthy of retention despite the rest of Steve McClaren’s backroom staff being shown the door. As Cathro was embarking on an alternative and admirable career path, Scotland’s reputation was taking a hammering with every passing European competition or international fixture.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Malky Mackay is on the SFA’s radar for the role of performance director despite the scandal that has seen him not work in football for nearly two years. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Craig Levein, now Hearts’ director of football and the man who spotted Cathro’s promise when in charge of Dundee United, knows better than anyone about the latter’s talent. It should be remembered that, since exiting administration more than two years ago, Hearts have got precious few decisions wrong.

Cathro’s first was to turn to his long-time friend Austin MacPhee as his assistant. Their paths have been similar, with MacPhee progressing to the point of being a key influence on Michael O’Neill’s hugely acclaimed Northern Ireland squad. MacPhee not only takes football analytics to a new level, he retains the capacity to properly impart relevant information on players and teams. Together, Cathro and MacPhee are being painted in some quarters as the Nutty Professors of Scottish football.

MacPhee’s decision both endorses Cathro and rather leaves the Scottish FA in a pickle. The 37-year-old had been a strong candidate and perhaps the favourite to take on the governing body’s performance director role before opting for Tynecastle. MacPhee’s appeal to the SFA was obvious, from collection and use of data for clubs and national teams to implementation of a full coaching curriculum.

With MacPhee out of the equation, Malky Mackay is left as the supposed frontrunner for the performance director job and that is where the proper focus in Scotland should lie: the willingness of the governing body to seriously consider Mackay, to the point where he was present in the Hampden Park director’s box for the recent League Cup final.

Mackay is, of course, backed by old friends in high places. The respective managers of the Old Firm, Brendan Rodgers and Mark Warburton, have touted Mackay for what is a seriously important post. At no point have that pair, or anyone else, had the gumption to point out exactly why the 44-year-old is wholly unsuitable.

The first point is a basic football one. When Mackay was flying high at Watford or Cardiff City, he would have had no interest whatsoever in Scotland’s performance plan. He is a manager, not a youth football strategist; just as, should any decent English club show interest in Mackay’s services again, the notion would persist that he could not cross the border quickly enough.

More pertinent still is the means by which Mackay is now happy to make himself available and why he will not be touched by a club with self-regard. Nobody should need reminding of message exchanges which referred to “Fkn chinkys” and “dogs”, “not many white faces” on a transfer list, “a bounce on her falsies” of a female agent plus other texts which verged from antisemitic or racist to simply offensive. Two elements of this affair were ludicrous: the sense that this was endemic of football culture, plus Mackay’s explanation of “friendly text message banter”.

Here is the appropriate context; a Scottish role which oversees schools, academies, male and female teams plus the coaches responsible for them. What possible message would it send out for someone with Mackay’s previous to be in charge? For all Mackay has a right to work and a second chance, being given this in such a job would be staggering, even by the SFA’s questionable standards of judgment. Equal opportunity? Two fingers to the suggestion, more like.

Cathro’s arrival plus MacPhee’s acceptance link these two affairs. One has sparked anger, the one which follows logic and reason. Only in Scotland.