Sebastien Pocognoli: Scotland make young and brave choice for national head coach job

His youth is a huge talking point as is the fact that he’ll be pitting his wits against some very experienced operators in the months and years ahead. He has signed an initial two-year deal. The former Everton player, and Pocognoli’s previous coaching side-back, Kevin Mirallas is likely to join him in Scotland.

“I like to do things in a different way,” said Pocognoli. “I don’t believe there is one way to be the best in life. Not only about football, but generally in life. Did the Scotland challenge [reflect] my identity and personality? I think that, yes, and that’s why I was curious to go through the meetings.

“I’m maybe one of the youngest managers for the job but I was also one of the youngest managers in Belgium.

“Everybody was surprised. And at the end, it was a happy end. And then I continued the journey in Monaco and today I’m here.”

Belgium was Union Saint-Gilloise, who use the same data analytics company as Hearts, and the remarkable story of their first league title win in 90 years. That was 2024-25 and Pocognoli was in charge. He was 37 when he got the job and delivered massively at the first time of asking.

USG had been a process, though. For context, they didn’t go from nobodies to champions in Pocognoli’s one season at the helm. They’d been knocking on the door for three seasons, under different managers, before he arrived; second, third and second in the three campaigns prior to his elevation from coaching at underage level. In 2023 and 2024 under different managers they missed out on the title by a point. Pocognoli was the historic one who got them over the line.

How did it happen? “Well, it starts with people who believe in you, give you the opportunity to shine,” he explained. USG are a curious case. They have had four different managers in recent seasons and all of them left the club quickly, poached away to supposedly bigger things, only to fail.

Felice Mazzu left USG for Anderlecht, Karel Geraerts went to Schalke and then Reims. Alexander Blessin went to St Pauli. Pocognoli, himself, left for Monaco. All of them were a disappointment. It begs the question and adds to the suspense about these managers being products of a system at USG. Can they operate successfully outside of that system?