Andrew McKinlay spoke to the press after Heart of Midlothian's 117th Annual General Meeting at Tynecastle Park on Thursday morning.

The club's chief executive fielded questions on the management decision, Lawrence Shankland's future and James Anderson's long-term commitment. Here is everything he had to say.

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What are your general reflections on how the AGM went?

It's an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions. It's not something they get every day. You always want to go into an AGM off the back of a great win at the weekend, so it was always going to be a day of some difficult questions. I don't think any were unreasonable. People had legitimate questions.

Can you understand the frustration of fans around the style of play with the football during the interim spell not replicated so far?

I totally understand that. That style was a big factor in Steven being considered for the job full-time. I suspect Steven is probably at a loss as to why we are not able to replicate that, but he will speak for himself. First and foremost, it's a result business, so it's about getting results and getting us high up that league. It's absolutely important how we play but it's secondary to the results. We are all on the same page at this club, including Steven. We know we need to play better in an offensive manner. I think we do forget sometimes that football is about offence and defence. Defensively, we have tightened up this year. We have been good. I'm not saying we haven't made mistakes but we have been strong there. It's almost been like: 'Oh well, you've done that, it's irrelevant, you're rubbish going forward.' We know we need to get better going forward. Actually, if we just got a little bit better going forward, I think we would be in a very good place.

Lawrence Shankland. How important has he been and how important is he going forward?

The stats speak for themselves. It would be nice if some others chipped in with some goals but Lawrence is vital to the team. He is not someone I would be looking to sell.

If an offer did come in, what would it take for the club to consider?

I won't give numbers but it would have to be exceptional. I don't even know what that number would be. If you look at the numbers around being in group stage football in Europe and not being in group-stage football in Europe, that gives you an indication of what that's worth to the club. In fact, the way it is at the moment, he would be the difference. So we are talking significant sums. These are not sums I expect anyone to match.

What would you say to fans who feel Hearts are too big to be a manager's first job?

I totally understand that point of view. When he was made interim manager, I had conversations with him about that and views that I had around that. It would be wrong of me to share those publicly. You can only deal with what is in front of you regarding what was available, what we had seen, what we thought was a risk or not a risk. We went through all of that and we felt Steven deserved an opportunity.

When you weigh up the risk and reward with Shankland, his contract has got 18 months to run, when do you get to the point where you need to get him tied down?

That's the great art in this and we are not in control of that. We are never in control of that. A player is totally in control of that situation. The point you will make is: 'Yeah, but then you have to decide if we are going to sell him.' At the moment, like any other season, our focus is on the players out of contract at the end of this season. We will get those dealt with first, probably then look at the January window, see where we are, and I would expect us to probably have conversations with Lawrence at that point to see where he is and how he is feeling about things. I'm saying that off the top of my head because that's what we would usually do. That's a normal way that we do business. There is a huge amount that can happen between now and the end of January.

Do you reckon early next year you would be looking to have an initial chat? 

You would want a chat with any player. With any player you want to understand whether there is a conversation to be had. As I said, the players have the power. Football clubs often get criticised for allowing football players to run down their contracts. I can’t stop a player running down their contract. Yes, you could have sold them before, but if he does not want to go, you cannot force a guy to go somewhere else. There has to be a market. As I said earlier, I have not had any indication from anyone that they want to buy Lawrence Shankland. I am not even going down the route of trying to be …I am being unequivocal. We have had nothing in to suggest that anyone is coming in for Lawrence Shankland, other than what everyone keeps talking about in the media. 

READ MORE: Hearts explain Lawrence Shankland plan for contract talks

Was there interest in the summer?

Nothing concrete. There were rumours and we said it at the time that something might come in from Saudi Arabia, and we did not receive anything at all. No bids, nothing. 

As for the guys out of contract, how confident are you that they will sign an extension?

I would be hopeful they will. But it is interesting, there’s divided views on those players. So again it will be one ….I might be able to do a deal with Beni and or Craig in the summer, but some of the fanbase might say, “but they have been injured, they have been this, and they have been that”. But we would not have offered them contracts if we did not believe they had something to offer beyond this season. We have offered them contracts and it is not uncommon for players to take time to consider their options. 

Is there any regret about the confusion over Steven Naismith and Frankie McAvoy roles, while everyone in the club was on the same page, outside the club there was a general bemusement?

I think I used the word earlier, disingenuous. I found it utterly disingenuous the bemusement outside the club. Everyone was fully aware of what was going on and chose not to interpret it in the way it was. That is my view on that. We knew when we did it that if results did not go it would be used as a stick to beat us, and it was. We knew that but we had briefings, we had people ask us questions, we told them what the story was, but certain individuals chose to ask questions which they knew the answers to. They knew they were putting individuals into very difficult situations with those questions. 

Has James Anderson given any indication as to his long-term commitment to Hearts?

We have a contractual commitment from him. I can’t go into the details of that for obvious reasons. James is very much committed to the longer term of Hearts. I think he said in an interview recently that he wants to see stability. He does not want to see managers changing every six months, or every three months or whatever. We have seen that at some other clubs. I saw some numbers recently about the number of games that managers have had, some of our rivals. We do not want to be in that situation. He is here for the long term. James has been here from day one. He likes Hearts, he likes what we do. We talk a lot about the community work etc etc but yes he wants to see a successful team and he is very keen to see us bring through more players from the academy. That is a huge thing for him. He does a lot studying on European based teams, he is very knowledgeable on European football. I am not sure I know anyone with his inside knowledge on certain clubs and certain models at certain clubs. He also has an in into certain clubs in Europe which we will tap into as appropriate to help look at some of those models. Replicating those models is easier said than done. Queens Park are on record as saying they want to do something similar to what AZ Alkmaar have done. Ever since I was a boy I have heard people talk about picking up the Ajax training ground formula and I do not think anyone has managed to do it. It is one thing saying it, another thing achieving them. We are on the same page as James. We all want to see that academy bringing through a conveyor belt of players. We need to be better at that. 

Steven spoke recently about trying to change the culture within the team, the performances. How do the board see the culture of Hearts as a football side?

I am assuming when he was talking about that he was talking about the mentality of the players. Steven's played here, he's also played at Rangers. Two teams, particularly when you are playing at home, there is a massively high expectation from the home fans. I'm assuming what he was meaning is that we get players or have players that can cope with that pressure and live up to that mentality. The culture of the wider club I see in a slightly different way. I would never give some high falutin view of what our culture is. Culture to me is something that is instilled - this is from a business side - from my actions and the way I am and the way I believe the behaviours of my senior team and the people below them. Culture becomes something that is then bred and part of the DNA. I think I understand what Steven was meaning and that is a job for him along with the other coaches, we have psychologists that work with us, to get what he wants in that regard.

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The shirt sponsor going forward, is that a move away from the partnership with MND Scotland to a more traditional one?

It is going to be more traditional but something that fits in with our values still (no crypto, gambling, alcohol). We are going down a slightly different route. I don't think any sponsorships any more are 'write us a cheque and we'll give you a bit of LED'. That's not the way that market works anymore. I touched upon it early on, what you do in the community, what you do as a club, the culture of the club, having a women's team, these are all massively important things for sponsors. There are a lot of sponsors like what Hearts do in the community, the fact we do look at other things, not just the men's first-team which means we get other sponsors in. But at the end of the day the highest profile is being on the front of the shirt. This will be for both the men's and women's teams, they will have the same sponsor which is a change.

Will you go back and relay to Steven what was said about the style of play?

Of course. He'll see it but I will sit down with him. To be honest, I don't think I need to. I think he is very well aware of the noise that goes on. I have spoken to him and his family a little bit about that sort of thing. He has talked about other times in his career when there has been a lot of noise and how you deal with that. It is not as if he ignores it, he understands it. He's a football person, he gets it. He gets that you have got to get the fans on board and give them something that they want to get on board with. He fully believes he can do that.

Are you surprised by how quickly the atmosphere around the management team has changed?

Yes, I guess I am surprised by it. But it is what it is. I'm not for a minute saying it was 100 per cent who wanted Steven. We had played some silky football earlier on in the game (against Hibs at Tynecastle on final day of 2022/23 season) until the sending off. It became backs to the wall, the fight at the end which I utterly condemn for the SFA's purpose, it just galvanised everyone. How quickly did they change? We had a banner after about three games. Did that surprise me? Yeah, it did surprise me but maybe I have now realised that's the reality of Hearts. I just need to deal with that reality as is.