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Liam Fox this week walked into a head coach role at a team with no signed players. A club with no history and currently no permanent stadium to call home. As football jobs go this is the very definition of blank canvas - indeed the 41-year-old could be forgiven for taking one look at the challenge he’s taken on in Florida and painting The Scream. Nothing could be further from the truth though. Forget risk. Fox only sees opportunity after becoming the first ever head coach at the newly-formed Sporting Club Jacksonville ahead of their debut season in America’s USL Championship. He may be over 4000 miles from his family back home in Edinburgh as he takes his first steps into a coaching job outwith his comfort zone of Scottish football. But it’s exactly the fresh start the former Hearts coach and ex- Dundee United boss was seeking after his emotional exit from Tynecastle in May. Speaking to MailSport after his official unveiling in the Sunshine State this week, Fox said: “This is so far out of the comfort zone! “But I’ve always spoken about not wanting to be seen as just a Scottish coach. This is a different culture, different country, different climate, all these challenges, which will be brilliant. “Did we have a signed player when I accepted the role? No! There's a hell of a lot of work to do, but it's so exciting. I'm sure it's going to test me to the absolute limit. “It’s not something that you're going to get in Scotland or the UK - a brand new club starting from scratch. So that poses its own challenges and its own problems. “But you can get stressed and uptight about that or you can choose to meet it head on and think what a brilliant opportunity to create an environment and build the club from the bottom up. “There's going to be a lot of firsts for me. But sometimes in life you've got to take a wee bit of risk and you've got to back yourself and back your career and that's exactly what I'm going to do.” A year ago Fox was right at home in the Hearts dug out, a hundred yards from the Gorgie Stand where he grew up supporting the Jambos. Two successful stints as interim boss for his boyhood heroes brought a record of five wins, a draw and a solitary defeat from seven games. The passionate post-match press conference Fox gave after the last of those saw the Jambos win 1-0 at Kilmarnock on the final day of last season said everything about the connection between the man and the club. By that point it was public knowledge Fox’s time at Tynecastle was up ahead of the Derek McInnes revolution sweeping into Gorgie. Sitting in the Rugby park press room that day Fox said: “Instead of being disappointed and bitter about it, we’ll move on, we’ll see what comes up. I’m excited to see what’s next, wherever it may be.” That next destination just happens to be America. After a call from former Rangers manager Mark Warburton who took on the sporting director role at Sporting JAX back in March, the former Livingston and Raith midfielder finds himself in Florida for the first time in his life. He’s signed a two-year deal with the club holding the option of a third year. It’s a new franchise headed up by majority owner Ricky Caplin and with a Glaswegian CEO in Steve Livingstone - formerly general manager of the Scottish Claymores American Football team. But it’s with Warburton who Fox will work closest, building a squad ready to hit the ground running for pre-season in January ahead of their big debut in the second tier of the US soccer system. He said: “I'd spoke to Mark at the start of the summer, our connection is Lee Wallace because obviously Lee played for Mark at Rangers and at QPR. “I spoke to the President, Steve Livingstone, and then I spoke to the owner, Ricky Caplin, on Zoom. “It was really clear from the start, the passion and the energy that the guys here have for the project and the franchise. “Mark's come in 10 months ago and been working behind the scenes. So it's not starting totally from ground zero. But there’s a lot or work to do. “We see a lot of things similar. The sort of players that he's been speaking to, the fit of what we're trying to do with the team to make it young and exciting and engage with the community. “There's plans for a 15,000-seater stadium, which they're talking about in the next year. At the moment we're going to be playing at Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville. “But we’re competing with the Jacksonville Jaguars American football team, the ice hockey, the baseball.. so it's going to be a tough market.” Nothing screams change more than Fox having to start referring to his passion as “soccer”. He’s not quite got used to that yet. Such has been his tie to Scottish football that even his daughter Georgie, 14, and son Harry, 11, were a step ahead of him in terms of his new home. But he said: “I’d never been to Florida before. My wife and kids have, when Georgie was over cheerleading. “It's 23 degrees just now, clear blue skies, so that's a wee bit different from what I left at home a few days ago! “These things are going to be new for me - training environments, training times, but that's part of the excitement. “I'm going to embrace the challenge and make the very, very best of it. “It's a huge privilege and a huge honour for me. If you'd told me 15 years ago that I would be men's head coach in Florida then I’d not have believed you. “But that's the beauty of football. It can take you anywhere.” Fox will always be proud of the fact he got to manage his boyhood heroes Hearts for seven games - even on an interim basis. Two spells as caretaker following the sackings of Steven Naismith and Neil Critchley brought an impressive five wins and just one defeat including a European victory against Dinamo Minsk in Azerbaijan. Fox is delighted to see the Jambos flying high under Derek McInnes this season. And even though his exit - after finishing last season with four straight wins - was taken out of his hands he’ll never be bitter. He said: “I’m hugely proud of those seven games as Hearts interim manager. Hugely privileged to be given that opportunity. “The period I had there was fantastic. Going back, working with the B team, getting the opportunity to step in and take the first team was a huge privilege for me. “People that know me know how much it meant to me. “I was really proud to be able to pass it on to Derek. He’s doing an unbelievable job, which is absolutely brilliant for the fan base and the supporters because they deserve that. “But also for Scottish football as well. Even over here, people are talking about Hearts and their form. Derek deserves a huge amount of credit for the job that he's done. “But for me personally, it was a privilege. The Minsk game was a real, real high point. “But to be honest it was probably just the whole process and the players that I worked with every day were absolutely magnificent. “It was a real, real good learning experience for me. But this is my next challenge now and in football, in the world, especially football, you're always on about what's next, what's the next challenge and this challenge. “The experiences I had from that and from Dundee United and from all the previous roles that I've done will stand me in good stead for what will hopefully be some good moments going forward.” Fox grew up as a fan at Tynecastle and began his own playing career in the Jambos youth set-up before starting and finishing his pro career in Gorgie. Now his 11-year-old son Harry is following in his footsteps. And he said: “My wee boy's been ball-boying quite a lot because he plays with the under-11s, so I'm at the training base quite a lot. “It's Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, so it’s been great to be able to watch him. “But, yes, it's good to go back and watch him and watch the team. They're going great which is fantastic and long may that continue. “Listen, it's what I grew up with. It's kind of in your blood. “I’ll always look out for the results and hope Hearts do well.”
