'Fans say they would pay to play for Hearts - Michael's doing that'

ALAN PATTULLO

IT WASN’T Christmas and neither was it April Fools’ day but Craig Levein yesterday admitted to some measure of disbelief when Michael Stewart’s agent, his former Hearts team-mate George Wright, phoned him on Monday to tell the Tynecastle manager that his player was prepared to finance the move from Manchester United to his boyhood heroes.

Normally it is transfers in the other direction which has a player gushing but then Stewart is a very rare case in today’s footballing environment, where players surplus to requirements are more than happy to sit like King Croesus and watch their inflated earnings mount. Stewart spoke of the move home as if it was Hearts, and not the club he was leaving, who are used to being described as one of the world’s most glamorous sides. But, for the Scottish midfielder, Hearts have other qualities to endear themselves. Like a girl hitching up her skirt, the Edinburgh club revealed just enough to make losing out on a sum of money sound attractive to Stewart.

In the first instance there is the obvious emotional attachment which comes from supporting Hearts, as well as the club’s base being in the city where Stewart’s family, girlfriend and friends all live. It must also be pointed out that Hearts - for all their off-field troubles - are hardly a team in the doldrums, with the prospect of UEFA Cup football adorning this coming campaign, as well as a renewed assault on the hegemony currently enjoyed by the Old Firm. But Stewart’s enthusiasm for what is clearly a downsizing still buoyed anyone whose spirit is prone to plummet when in the same room as a grasping footballer.

As Levein said when he presented the player to reporters yesterday: "A lot of people often say how they would pay money to play for Hearts - well here is someone who is."

"We just never thought we could get anywhere near his wages," continued Levein. "I never made any calls at all. I received a phone call from George Wright, and right away I said: ‘Honestly George, I have told you a hundred times, we’ve no money left!’ He said: ‘No, it’s a little bit different this time. The lad himself is prepared to finance the deal’. And so my ears suddenly pricked up!"

Being a boyhood fan of the club, Stewart was there - though weren’t they all - when Hearts experienced the savage ache of losing out on the league title on the last day of the 1985-86 season at Dens Park. "I was five or six at the time," he recalled yesterday. "It was a bit confusing walking away and seeing grown men cry. I didn’t understand what was going on."

It is at this ground, indeed, where he will start his competitive Hearts career, against Dundee a week today, in what is initially a year’s loan deal agreement. United have the option to recall him in the January transfer window if required, but both Levein and the player himself believe this is unlikely. Stewart is far enough out of the Old Trafford first team picture for them to entertain paying more than half his weekly wage - believed to be £10,000 - while he plays for another team. The midfielder himself will bear the brunt of lost earnings, if indeed one needs to bear seeing weekly takings go from £10,000 to a mere £6,000.

While a certain restraint would be prudent before hailing the player an arch-philanthropist, there is still plenty of reason to salute someone who has surveyed the circumstances of a stalled career and been prepared to take some tough decisions, particularly after the disappointment of the recent rejection by Rangers.

"I have more to prove to myself than anyone else," he said. "I know what I am capable of. I think once you are happy with what you are doing within yourself then what everyone else thinks is immaterial. And I am not happy. I have a lot to prove to myself, and that is at the forefront of my mind."

He begins the process of redemption today, with Stewart expected to appear at some stage of the friendly against Fulham. Aged 23, the former Scotland Under-21 international is acutely aware that this approaching season represents a vital one if he is to fulfil the potential which once moved Sir Alex Ferguson to comment that he was "the type anyone would like at their club".

This was a reference to an attitude described, according to your viewpoint, as "never-say-die" or "hot-headed". And not anyone did like him being at their club, with Stewart’s loan move to Nottingham Forest last season terminated prematurely after the player’s failure to hit it off with manager Joe Kinnear.

Levein is aware that Stewart comes in a package marked "explosive", but sees this as a positive. He also made the point that few players at Hearts are the finished article, with improvement the watchword at a club whose new academy is proof of a commitment to development. Levein spoke with Ferguson, Stewart’s manager, last Friday, and the conversation covered all aspects of the player, including a temperament one might generously describe as suspect.

"I have known Michael for a long, long time," said Levein. "He was at school with the son of one of my mates. And before he went down to Manchester United, Hearts knew all about him. I like players who like to win so long as we can teach them that yes, we all want to win, but there is a way of going about it.

"He would not be here if he did not have that hunger," continued Levein.

"[Mark] De Vries, [Graham] Weir [Patrick] Kisnorbo, [Neil] MacFarlane, [Paul] Hartley and [Phil] Stamp, - they all want to play first team football and to improve themselves and the whole team. They would not be here if they did not have these thoughts in their minds constantly."

Taken from the Scotsman