Jon Daly has reflected on his time as Hearts' caretaker manager and insists he's gutted to see the club relegated to the Championship.
Daly took over for a short period following Ian Cathro's sacking before joining Craig Levein's coaching staff. Having worked with a number of players from his time there until he departed under Daniel Stendel, the Irishman has watched from afar with disappointment at the Jambos' struggles.
After being sacked by Stendel back in January in somewhat controversial circumstances, Daly could have been forgiven for ignoring the results and forgetting all about his former employers. But that is not in his nature. Instead - despite maintaining his departure could have been handled better - he has been left frustrated at Hearts' inconsistency that has cost them their place in the Premiership next season.
"Being caretaker manager was a fantastic experience because at that stage of my career I'd have never dreamed of getting that opportunity at a club like Hearts," he told Herald and Times Sport. "Things didn't pan out the way we wanted it to in the end but that happens.
"I don't have any grudges with anyone at the club in terms of the way it ended, I kind of foreseen what was going to happen. I do still think it could have been done differently but it's water under the bridge and you move on. I take things from everything I do and if I was to go and get a job next week somewhere I would use my experience of how it ended at Hearts to deal with things in the way I feel they should be dealt with.
"In this game you can't hold grudges because it moves very quickly and you need to keep adapting. You can't burn bridges."
Daly believes Hearts had a good enough squad to stay up, making their drop to the lower league all the more disappointing. Having applauded victories over Rangers last season, Daly reckons they've proven they can do the business on their day.
Though they were far too inconsistent. He added: "The squad, with the addition of a few players, is a very good one. And I feel for the manager in terms of the injuries he dealt with to key players at certain times. They showed on the day they're a match for anyone but their consistency levels over the season weren't good enough. I'm disappointed for everyone involved, I have close relationships still with a lot of the players and staff, there's a lot of good people at the club who you want to succeed."
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