Heart of Midlothian are making progress as they pinpoint the possible candidates to replace Steven Naismith as the club's next head coach.

As chief executive Andrew McKinlay explained last week, the club will put forward their own candidates as well as take on recommendations from an analytics company, understood to be Tony Bloom's Jamestown Analytics.

It is hoped an appointment will be made during the international break following Sunday's Scottish Premiership fixture with Aberdeen.

Hearts Standard tasked resident analyst Tom Irving to put forward his own suggestions as the potential next Hearts manager...

I’ve tried to follow some general guidelines. I looked for a young manager who is helping, or has previously helped, a club punch above their weight in their respective leagues. I’ve tried to find managers with experience in European competitions and, where possible, managers who have succeeded in this aspect. I’ve looked for managers who play attacking football where possible.

Lastly, I’ve removed managers who wouldn’t be suited to Hearts for whatever reason, even if they fit the criteria. This could be down to the fact that I don’t believe the manager would unite the fanbase or they could be unattainable financially, amongst other things. So let’s take a look at the managers I believe to be good options for the Jambos.

The top 3

Jacob Friis

The 47-year-old is currently the assistant manager of Augsburg in the Bundesliga. The Dane got his first top-level experience at Aalborg in his homeland, where he took over as interim manager in November 2018 after the previous coach only managed to win one of the first 12 games in the season. He managed to guide Aalborg to a ninth-place finish that season, before following it up with a sixth-place finish the following season.

He stepped down in October of his third season in charge for personal reasons related to his daughter's health. During this time, he took over a role as the under-19s manager for the women’s national team, before moving back into men’s football at Viborg in 2022, again in the Danish Superliga. He took over in February and guided them to the Europa Conference League second qualifying round through the Superliga play-off, following a seventh-place finish. In his first full season at the club, he kept the club in second and third spot for most of the season but fell to fourth due to goal difference in the last couple of game weeks, again guiding the club into Europe.

Most impressively, he did so with one of the lowest budgets in the league and one of the lowest squad values on Transfermarkt. He has been required to be good in the transfer windows, and he has signed multiple impressive players that have been sold soon after for a large profit, most notably signing Elias Achouri for under £300,000 and selling for over £3 million a year later.

Friis likes his teams to play exciting football in the final third and based his pro license on this theory, writing his thesis on 'Finishing from the red zone – against established defence', something that would be appreciated at Tynecastle Park. Highly experienced manager Jess Thorup saw the value of Friis and recruited him to be his assistant manager at Augsburg in the Bundesliga in November 2023.

Jacob Friis. (Image: Getty Images) Thomas Lagerlof and Kim Bergstrand

Thomas Lagerlof and Kim Bergstrand took over Djurgårdens in 2019 and have had brilliant success since. In the five seasons they have been in charge they have finished first on one occasion, second on two occasions, third on one occasion, fourth on two occasions and are currently sitting in second place near the end of their season.

Their domestic performance is just one of three reasons I believe the duo would be a good fit for Hearts. The pair took Djurgårdens through two qualifying rounds and into the Conference League, beating APEOL Nicosia 5-2 on aggregate in the play-off round. In the Conference League they managed to come top of the group with 16 points in their six group games before defeat in the round of 16.

Now, the performances on the pitch are more than matched by their performance in the transfer window. They’ve managed to create a profit of over £28m, with more than £38m in sales and only £10m in spending. Hearts have struggled to make a profit from player sales and this could be a huge selling point for the board.

Kim Bergstrand  (Image: Michael Campanella)Sergej Jakirovic

One of the only unemployed managers that features high on my list. Sergej Jakirovic has recently been fired from his role as manager of Dinamo Zagreb. The Bosnian is massively experienced in Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia, achieving more than two points per match in each of his last four clubs.

Jakirovic brings more than just domestic dominance to the table. With 16 wins and three draws in his matches in Europe, including 11 games in the main tournament and an appearance in the last 16.

As a manager, he likes to set up his teams to be strong defensively, physically intense and strong on the counter-attack. All things that would do well to unite the Gorgie faithful. He’s one of the most experienced young coaches that Hearts could try to convince to join the project in Edinburgh. And even though wages may be an issue, his current unemployment helps their case.

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The others

Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim and Morten Jensen

Another managerial duo, this time from the Norwegian club Viking. These two have been in charge of Viking since January 2021 and have finished in third on one occasion and fourth on two occasions, with a blip in 2022 where they finished 11th. The duo mesh well together, with Aarsheim as the tactical genius and Jensen the man-manager and motivator.

They play with a good high press off the ball, and a quick direct style when in possession. This season they’ve taken more shots than any other team and have a high number of goals and xG. The duo lacks much experience in Europe but managed an impressive win against Sparta Prague in the qualifying rounds of the Conference League qualifiers in 2022/23, before convincingly beating Sligo Rovers and finally falling to a tough Steaua Bucharest side by a single goal. The duo would bring an ability to punch above their weight, combined with good football, which makes them a good option for the Gorgie side.

Kim Hellberg

The only name on the list that has been linked with the Hearts job in the press. At only 36, Hellberg has managed for more than 11 years, including the last two in the top divisions in Sweden. Hellberg took over for departing Marti Cifuentes. This season Hammarby are sitting in fourth position, with Hellberg already matching the points tally with five games remaining – and an impressive 16 more goals. Some may see Hellberg as a risk due to his age but he’s a manager who has a continuously rising stock, and we may not want to miss out on the next big thing coming out of Hammarby.

Luis Freire

Hearts fans are partial to a Portuguese coach, with the previous man from that nation going down as a somewhat legend in Gorgie. There’s more to Luis than just his nationality though. The 38-year-old may be young but has been a manager for more than 11 years – north of 400 games, which includes seven promotions. He’s not finished incredibly high up the league since returning Rio Ave to the top tier but has been within touching distance of several places above him. Could he work wonders at a club with the finances available to him like there is at Hearts?

Takayuki Yoshida

A manager who Hearts have dealt with previously when signing Yutaro Oda from his Vissel Kobe side in early 2023. Takayuki has managed more than 180 matches in the well-respected J1 league. He guided the club to their first-ever league title in 2023 and are currently sitting second by one point with only two games remaining in the season. His stock may be too high for Hearts now, but if we could convince him to move he would be a fantastic addition.

Fedrik Holmberg

Holmberg has achieved incredible results in his first two and a half years in charge of GAIS. He took over the club after they were relegated to the third tier of Swedish football. He guided the club to the league title in his first season before coming second the next season, leading the club in back-to-back promotions. You’d expect him to finally hit a wall in the much more competitive top tier but the 44-year-old continues to get the best out of his players. GAIS are currently in sixth place, only six points off second with a budget that’s by far one of the lowest in the 16-team league. If the Swede ends the season well, then I can see clubs lining up for his signature.

Feđa Dudić

The Bosnian, in charge of Serbian outfit Radnicki, is a passionate, motivational and high-energy coach whose energy is passed onto his players on the pitch. His teams play with a high and intense press, evident by their extremely low PPDA – a metric that measures how many passes the opposition make per defensive action. He’s probably not as experienced as fans would like and his experience in Europe has been mixed, most recently winning a home leg against Montenegrin opposition 1-0 before losing away from home 6-4.

Robbie Keane

Currently unemployed, Robbie Keane is a familiar name to football fans in Scotland. Whether Hearts fans would get behind him from the get-go is debatable. He was vastly experienced as a player and proved himself as an assistant manager at Ireland, Middlesbrough and Leeds United before making the move into management at Maccabi Tel Aviv. After winning the league by 11 points and performing well in Europe, he left the club due to issues with the fans for remaining silent on the political issues in the region. His Celtic connections may be enough to put some Hearts fans off, but he’s a coach who knows the league and who would be otherwise unattainable if it were not for the situation leading to his departure from Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Brian Barry-Murphy

Barry-Murphy spent time at Rochdale before moving to Manchester City where he worked with their elite development squad. He’s been linked to several jobs in England and many expected him to have already taken a role by now. He knows how to nurture talent and would thrive at a club like Hearts but may be lacking the first-team experience that the Hearts board and fanbase both want.