Hearts consider up to eight managerial hopefuls

Hearts are considering up to eight names to replace Steven Naismith as head coach and have already interviewed one candidate, says chief executive Andrew McKinlay.

Naismith was sacked following last month's 2-1 defeat by St Mirren - an eighth successive loss in all competitions - and Liam Fox oversaw Saturday's draw with Ross County.

Fox will also be in charge for Thursday's Conference League opener against Dinamo Minsk in Azerbaijan (17:45 BST).

"We now have a long shortlist of around seven or eight people," McKinlay told BBC Scotland. "The reason I say seven or eight is that some fall off and say maybe one didn’t quite make it, we say, 'well let's have a chat'.

"What you don’t want is to end up with none. We have that list to speak to. Yesterday myself and [sporting director] Graeme Jones did our first interview with someone.

"I am hoping over the weekend and into next week we will do the rest."

McKinlay intends to forward a list of up to three names to the club's board and indicated the club "are looking for someone maybe a bit different".

Hearts are working in consultation with an analytics company as they seek to appoint their fifth head coach or manager within five years.

"I don’t like to talk about individual managers," added McKinlay.

"I have full respect for what people have achieved but we have decided to go down a route that we are going down using analytics.

"I am not sure there are any names on there that I have seen quoted.

"I don’t want to put a timescale on it."