Can Derek McInnes get Hearts beating again?

The managerial job at Hearts does not mean an all-powerful grip on the club, given the existing structure of the football department.

McInnes would be ‘head coach’ rather than ‘manager’, working with sporting director Graeme Jones and the renowned Jamestown Analytics software which has a key role in Hearts’ recruitment.

Those constraints have fuelled an argument McInnes would be reluctant to work under such an arrangement, hotly disputed by former Hearts defender and football agent Allan Preston.

“That’s not true,” Preston said on BBC Radio Scotland. “He’s gone into football clubs, the first one being St Johnstone, where there wasn’t really a structure in place and made changes to put that structure in place.

“He goes to Aberdeen, Craig Brown was managing there, they were in the bottom six and he put a structure in place there as well.

“He wants to do the best thing for the football club. It doesn’t mean total domination. He doesn’t demand total control – far from it.”

Aberdeen legend Willie Miller believes McInnes will accept the job if Hearts and Kilmarnock agree terms.

“No disrespect to Kilmarnock but Hearts is a huge job, and one I think could tempt him,” Miller said.

“Where else is he going to go if he turns this one down? I think if he is asked, he has got to take it. It’s a huge opportunity for him.”

And Steven Thompson, the former Scotland striker, says McInnes would provide the steadying influence Hearts have lacked.

“Hearts are a club in need of stability and you can guarantee that with Derek, a top manager who has been in this league for a number of years,” he said.

“It would work out well for Derek and Hearts – but not Kilmarnock. Are they going to get someone of his calibre again?”