Is McInnes the man to get Hearts beating again?

Heart of Midlothian began the season with European football to savour, Steven Naismith in the dugout and waves of positivity radiating from Tynecastle.

They ended up finishing in the Scottish Premiership's bottom six, with nothing tangible to play for, and another quest for a new head coach.

Naismith was dismissed in September after a wretched start to the campaign. Successor Neil Critchley's six-month reign was brief and meek, an initial upturn dissipating and the Englishman paying the price for tumbling out of the top half of the table and failing to notch a "statement" result.

Now Hearts have turned to Premiership veteran Derek McInnes for the 53-year-old's services.

Seasoned and successful, the now former Kilmarnock boss is a known quantity to the Hearts board. But is he the right man to take the Edinburgh heavyweights forward?

McInnes can be a polarising figure in Scotland, even among fans of Aberdeen, for whom he delivered such consistent results over eight years at the helm.

Some laud the intellect, organisation and repeated success of his sides, while others point to a perception of industrial football and few trophies.

His track record is undeniably impressive. Promotions with St Johnstone and Kilmarnock 13 years apart, a League Cup triumph with Aberdeen in 2014 and a top-six finish at Rugby Park last term are the tangible waypoints.

However, there is a lot more to like about how McInnes' Dons motored in a league dominated by Celtic.

Aberdeen never finished outside the top four, were runners-up four years running, and often had the misfortune of facing Brendan Rodgers' trophy-guzzling juggernaut in the latter stages of cup competitions.

That said, in the early part of his tenure, St Johnstone, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Hibernian all lifted the Scottish Cup, while Aberdeen's wait for the silverware has now stretched to 35 years and Motherwell pipped them to second spot in the Premiership.

As McInnes' long stewardship petered to an unedifying end, his football was pilloried and tactics decried as dull and unattractive.

Hearts will crave style as well as substance, but the latter commodity is of far greater importance right now.

McInnes has the experience and character to handle a club of Hearts' size, the weight of expectation and lofty demands it carries. He has proven as much at Pittodrie.

His preferred tactical blueprint is worth highlighting too.

McInnes often deploys wingers either side of a central striker. His front three of Niall McGinn, Adam Rooney and Johnny Hayes spearheaded a fine period for Aberdeen's attack.

The travails of Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland are well documented, routinely utilised as the advanced tip of a midfield diamond by Critchley rather than the number nine position from which he gobbled up 31 goals last season.

Since Critchley's departure, interim head coach Liam Fox pushed Shankland further forward and the Scotland striker has scored four goals in two matches.

There is history between Shankland and his prospective new gaffer. It was McInnes who signed and released him as a young forward struggling to make his mark in the Granite City.

Shankland is out of contract in the summer and talks with the Tynecastle talisman would be high on McInnes' to-do list should he make the move.

"Lawrence, I know him more than Craig but both are capable players, have proven they're good players here. I just want to work with good players," said McInnes after being unveiled.

The managerial job at Hearts does not mean an all-powerful grip on the club, given the existing structure of the football department.

McInnes would likely be 'head coach' rather than 'manager', working with sporting director Graeme Jones and the renowned Jamestown Analytics software that has a key role in Hearts' recruitment.

Those constraints have fuelled suggestions that McInnes would be reluctant to work under such an arrangement, hotly disputed by former Hearts defender and football agent Allan Preston.

"That's not true," Preston said on BBC Radio Scotland. "He's gone into football clubs, the first one being St Johnstone, where there wasn't really a structure in place and made changes to put that structure in place.

"He goes to Aberdeen, Craig Brown was managing there, they were in the bottom six and he put a structure in place there as well.

"He wants to do the best thing for the football club. It doesn't mean total domination. He doesn't demand total control - far from it."

And Steven Thompson, the former Scotland striker, says McInnes will provide the steadying influence Hearts have lacked.

"Hearts are a club in need of stability and you can guarantee that with Derek, a top manager who has been in this league for a number of years," he said.

"It would work out well for Derek and Hearts - but not Kilmarnock. Are they going to get someone of his calibre again">