Wouter Vrancken has revealed he could have doubled his salary by joining Ludogorets in Bulgaria instead of Hearts. The Belgian boss said advice from Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany helped him decide to move to Tynecastle.
Advice from a Man City icon
In an interview in his homeland, Vrancken said he had a big-money offer from Ludogorets but felt good about taking charge in the Scottish capital. "If money had been the deciding factor, I would be in Bulgaria now," he said. "I had many conversations with teams in the summer from France and there was also an attractive offer from Ludogorets where I could earn double what I do now."
"But I followed Vincent Kompany's advice because, above all, you need to have a good feeling about the people behind the project and I found that quickly at Hearts."
Tough start and transition
Hearts endured a difficult start to the season, exiting the Champions League and Europa League qualifiers with heavy losses to Sturm Graz and Benfica. They have since reached the group stages of the Conference League and the semi-finals of the Premier Sports Cup, where they face Hibs later this month.
Vrancken explained the challenges: "We had a difficult start. But you have to understand Hearts lost a lot of key players in the summer and they made signings Union Saint-Gilloise-style - by that I mean signings from the lower leagues. Add to that we only had three weeks of preparations when Sturm Graz was waiting for us in the Champions League qualifiers. After an hour we were exhausted. We had only played matches against smaller Scottish sides."
Future ambitions
Vrancken, 46, is hopeful Hearts can push for the title after coming close last season. "We have had some good results and I would say only our away game at Falkirk was poor," he added. "We are just behind Celtic and Rangers in the league. Rangers' budget is twice as big as ours and Celtic's is three times ours."
"I have a contract for two years. This season, we have to make progress in our game and in the details. I want Hearts to be more dominant and control more matches. And looking further ahead, we want to be competitive with the Glasgow teams and play for the title."
Hearts sit third in the Premiership after seven games, five points behind leaders Celtic, and have lost their last two league matches.
