Levein committed to club in times of trouble

DARREN JOHNSTONE

CRAIG Levein wants to assure Hearts supporters he has no intention of quitting the club even though the saga over a permanent home continues to rumble on.

Hearts chief executive Chris Robinson implied in midweek, when announcing the conditional sale of Tynecastle, he feared their young manager and players would seriously ponder their future if the issue was not resolved quickly.

Former player Levein has been hit the most by cut-backs in recent seasons and last term had to trim his budget by over £850,000 while still guiding his side to third in the league for the second successive year.

Levein’s stock has risen dramatically having worked wonders on a shoestring budget but he insists he is happy to be in the hot seat despite the off-field situation.

Now he hopes he can start the process of holding fresh contract talks with players that have a year on their current deals remaining. "I enjoy coming to work every morning and if I didn’t I would not be here", said Levein, whose side host Kilmarnock today.

"Moving to the academy building and seeing the lift that everyone has got from it is great. There are some negative things going on at the club at the moment but we are kind of shielded from them being at Riccarton and we don’t get involved in any of the politics. The relationship I have with the players and the staff is great and I enjoy the job. It would be far better for me if we had millions of pounds to spend and there was nothing going on off the park but that’s unrealistic."

A working group set up by chairman George Foulkes is still exploring the option of remaining at Tynecastle although Levein insists his main priority is to put a team on the park capable of competing in the SPL.

He added: "I think everybody is of the same opinion - if it was possible to stay at Tynecastle then I think we would. This will resolve itself in time, these things do. When it does I want to have the football side of the business in the best shape possible."

Taken from the Scotsman