Ian Cathro (born 11 July 1986) is a Scottish football coach and former player who is the head coach of Portuguese Primeira Liga club Estoril.
Cathro was previously an assistant coach at Rio Ave, Valencia, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur, and was briefly the head coach at Scottish Premiership club Hearts.
Playing career
Cathro played youth football for Forfar Athletic and
Brechin City.
Coaching career
Youth coach
After working as a local youth coach in
Dundee, Cathro became the head of Dundee United's youth academy at the age of 22.
During his time with Dundee United, he also worked for the Scottish Football Association's local youth programme.
has cited Cathro as one of the biggest influences on his career.
Assistant manager
In 2012, he became the assistant manager of Portuguese club Rio Ave.
In 2014, he followed Nuno, his manager at Rio Ave, to Spanish club
Valencia CF, where he also became assistant manager.
The two had first met at an SFA coaching course in Scotland in 2009.
He resigned his Valencia post on 11 June 2015.
A fortnight later, he agreed to join Premier League side Newcastle United as assistant to Steve McClaren, the recently appointed manager.
Heart of Midlothian
Cathro was appointed head coach of Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian on 5 December 2016.
[ ] The appointment caused some debate within Scottish football. Kilmarnock player
Kris Boyd questioned whether such a young manager, with limited playing experience, could command the respect of the squad.
Hearts performed poorly in the second half of the 2016–17 season, winning 5 of 22 league games after Cathro was appointed.
They fell to fifth place in the league and were knocked out of the 2016–17 Scottish Cup by their
Edinburgh derby rivals Hibernian.
After Hearts failed to qualify from the 2017–18 Scottish League Cup group stage,
Cathro was sacked.
Celtic manager
Brendan Rodgers said that there appeared to be a "confused" approach at Hearts, with a mismatch between the style of play Cathro wanted to implement and the type of players signed by the club.
After Cathro left, Hearts interim manager Jon Daly and player
Cole Stockton claimed that the physical training under Cathro had lacked intensity.
Assistant to Nuno
After almost a year out of football, Cathro was appointed first-team coach at Wolverhampton Wanderers in June 2018, linking up again with Nuno, who Cathro worked with in Portugal and Spain.
On 3 July 2021, Cathro followed former-Wolves manager Nuno to Tottenham Hotspur, after being appointed assistant head coach.
Cathro again followed Nuno when in the summer of 2022 the later was appointed as manager of Saudi club Al-Ittihad, with Cathro becoming First Team coach.
Estoril
In July 2024 he was appointed head coach of Portuguese club Estoril.
After a "difficult initial three months in charge", he won the league's Manager of the Month award in February 2025.
Managerial statistics
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| Heart of Midlothian | 5 December 2016 | 1 August 2017
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| Estoril | 1 July 2024 | Present
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Honours
Individual
