'No style. No bottle. Neilson out', was the message from a section of disgruntled Hearts supporters the last time their former captain was in the Tynecastle dugout.

A message Robbie Neilson was hit with despite his side sitting third in the Premiership having won the Championship the previous season at a canter. If that is the scrutiny that comes with success, it's difficult to imagine what might come when faced with adversity. Neilson wasn't fussed then and he's not bothered about it now. Even just last month another banner was draped outside the stadium demanding 'Neilson out', just one day after he rejoined the club.

Again, it's like water off a duck's back to the manager. His stint down south after leaving Hearts back in 2016 actually had him missing the intense pressure from fans, good or bad. When he arrived at MK Dons in League One, the demands were not as severe and Neilson admits he found it tough to adapt initially.

"[The intensity] was something I missed when I went down to England, to be honest," he said. "I missed the intensity of it and the pressure of it. I went down to MK, which was a great club with great people, but there was no pressure on myself and no pressure on the players. I found it quite difficult. We would be losing a game 1-0 and nobody cared. As long as you clapped the fans, everybody was happy. I missed the intensity.

"One of the reasons I went to Dundee United was because I felt I was going into a pressure situation. The job of a manager is to try and take that pressure off the players. I know that, going into this season with Hearts, whether it be top flight or Championship, there is going to be pressure on everyone. That's what you want. You want to be at a big club where you have to win, you have to train well, you have to prepare well. It keeps you on your toes."

Even if that means aeroplanes flying over Tynecastle again? "You know you're at a big club when they start doing that," he jokes. The manager has been on the outside looking in at the Jambos these recent years but he's well aware of the quality he has at his disposal. Things may not have been too rosy last season considering where Daniel Stendel's outfit finished the campaign, but Neilson knows his players are capable of bouncing back.

That's how, he believes, he will win back the small minority of fans who perhaps have not yet taken to the idea of his return. "Any fanbase, especially at Hearts, expect their players to work hard and commit to the club," he said. "That's the conversations we will be having with the players.

"Having watched the games, I think they have done that at time but sometimes they've found it quite difficult to deal with the pressure. That is the joy of playing at a big club. You get the good side of it but you have to be able to handle the pressures and circumstances.

"My job is to try and help them do that. I've done it before. At United last season we had to get promoted and we had the pressure of playing in a local derby. For me, they need to work hard, make sure they don't leave anything on the pitch, give everything for the club, and win games. If we do that, we will be successful."

At Dundee United there was a long-term strategy in place for Neilson. One that involved getting back to the Premiership last season, which - if all goes well for the Tangerines in their court battle against Hearts - he will have successfully started. The irony, of course, is that Neilson himself is now fighting the same fight from a different viewpoint. Not that he has been watching in great detail.

But like his long-term plans at United, he has walked into his new job with a similar pathway in mind to re-establish Hearts as one of Scottish football's biggest clubs again. With the eventual goal, in an ideal world for the boss, European football. "To be honest, even when I was at United, I didn’t take a lot of interest in the case – on either side of it," he said.

"I was focused on football. It’s the same here. The club in the background are dealing with the court case and the arbitration. It’s over my head, what goes on, and what will be, will be. That’s always been the approach for me. The owners and CEOs and directors take care of that side. My job, what I’m here to do, is to take care of players on the pitch and the training pitch. I don’t have an influence on anything else.

"The ultimate challenge for us is to get back to European football and do that consistently. First and foremost, we have to try and win football matches. I think that's the reason I'm here because we haven't been doing that in the previous two or three years. We want to win games and get the team moving forward. If we do that, then we will progress through the leagues and into a position where we believe we should be."