Levein has a roving eye

MARTIN HANNAN

THIS is not the news the long-suffering fans of Hearts will want to read at the beginning of a week in which their beloved club faces make-or-break matches, but there’s no hiding it - Craig Levein is in demand.

The vacancy caused by the departure of Graeme Souness from Blackburn Rovers was always going to lead inevitably to speculation that a club which has been managed by three Scots in he past 15 years - Don Mackay and Kenny Dalglish were the others - might turn to the brightest young star in Scottish football management.

Levein himself acknowledged yesterday that he had heard of, and could do nothing about, such speculation. Perhaps significantly, however, he did nothing to categorically rule himself out of the running for a job for which the favourites are Wales manager Mark Hughes, Peter Reid of Coventry City and former Rangers and Holland manager Dick Advocaat.

Given the turmoil which has surrounded Tynecastle seemingly interminably in this century, Levein would be less than human if he had not considered walking away from a morass which was most definitely not of his creating. He is an ambitious man, and it has been stated many times before that his elevation to higher things is inevitable.

Blackburn will be interviewing their short list over the next few days, and if Levein is indeed among the possible candidates, then they will not fail to be impressed by one of the most articulate and personable men in Scottish football, with a track record of success in keeping a financially-troubled team in the upper echelons of the SPL.

"It’s like being a football player, there’s nothing you can do to influence what other people do," said Levein yesterday. "Football players just do their job and I will do my job here as well as I can to the best of my ability. I am not actively seeking to do anything else.

"I enjoy working here, I’ve said that numerous times. I enjoy the people I work with, I enjoy the players we have got here and I have an affiliation which goes back to 1983, which is a long time. So as I say I am not actively seeking to do anything else."

An interesting choice of words - "not actively seeking" suggests he could well have been asked, rather than applied for the job. The very fact that he has not batted this speculation back and denied all interest will surely be enough to induce heart failure, if you’ll pardon the pun, in the Tynecastle boardroom and stands alike. For Levein is such a vital asset to Hearts that any hint of his departure could bring the whole shaky pack of cards at Tynecastle crumbling down. And the timing could not be worse.

Hearts today face Rangers in what can already be stated, even at this point in the season, to be one of the SPL’s crunch matches. On Thursday, Hearts face Sporting Braga of Portugal in the UEFA Cup, with the winner of the two-legged tie advancing into the money-spinning group section. Not that money is an immediate interest of Levein or his squad.

"We can only want to win 100%," said the manager. "You can throw as many other things in the pot as you want. As for money ... well, when I was at Hearts as a player we went to a quarter-final of the Scottish Cup against Aberdeen and the-then chairman, Wallace Mercer, quadrupled or tripled the bonus, or something like that, and we got beat 5-1."

His point was made. So if not with hard cash, how will he encourage his troops to bounce back from the defeat against Motherwell to take on one half of an Old Firm which Hearts increasingly no longer fear?

"We have responded well to every setback previously, and one of the things we have got in our favour is the fact that we are playing Rangers and that brings with it some things which help players concentrate. The fact that you are playing Rangers is one, the size of the crowd is another, and the fact that it’s live on television - these things influence players and their approach to matches.

"There’s a fine line between winning and losing matches and I think if you can keep players focused on one particular thing, and fill their heads with this one thing and nothing else, then you have got an opportunity to have them switched on in the match. If you are not switched on in the game against Rangers you are going to get beaten."

Levein is too intelligent a man to really believe the old "one game at a time" nonsense and though he paid lip service to the cliché, he was happy to discourse lucidly, as always, on the visit of Braga, a team he admits is more gifted, in some respects, than his squad.

"I watched Braga against Academica [Coimbra] 12 days ago," said Levein, "and they are quality. Technically they are a better side than us and I wouldn’t argue against anyone who said that. They have touch, passing ability, awareness, skill, whatever you want to call it - all the things we seem to lack.

"But they are new as a team. They have 12 new players and that’s difficult for them. Believe it or not, the year before they bought in eight, so they have this massive turnover.

"Against Academica they played in an attacking way. They passed the ball, their movement was incredible, but they didn’t look like a team. They drew 2-2, and they lost two sloppy goals.

"I might regret (saying) this but after they play Porto [last night] we’ll be their third competitive match in the season. I don’t know how many of the 12 new players are going to start, but I believe our best chance is our unity, our teamwork and our organisation. That, for me, is how we will get through to the next stage. But if they produce three or four minutes of sublime skill during either match then they will cause us problems.

"They play with a back four and sitting midfield player and really the other five players are attackers - two midfielders, two wide players and a striker. We have got to come up with a way of shutting down those five players, and do that in both games."

European competition stirs Levein’s blood in a way which, perhaps, the Premiership might also do, and which the SPL clearly does not.

"I loved it last year," he said of Hearts’ UEFA Cup adventure. "It was everything the SPL is not. It was challenging, it was exciting, it was heart-stopping at moments and for me it brought a different kind of thought process which I really enjoyed.

"I’m itching to get back there, but the interesting thing is we need to get through against Braga to have the chance to do something which will be particularly unique from our point of view - I don’t know if Hearts have ever played five different teams in European competition in a season, which is what will happen at least if we get through against Braga."

With Craig Gordon having gained vital experience playing for Scotland against Slovenia in midweek, and with Patrick Kisnorbo showing his commitment to Hearts by staying at home when he could have been at the Olympics with Australia, Levein has a young and eager team which he clearly enjoys managing. The question he must face, sooner or later, is how long is he prepared to work with Hearts when bigger opportunities are set to come his way?

Today down in Gorgie, on one subject at least, there will be unanimity between the footsoldiers of the Tynecastle legions and the officer class in the boardroom - Craig Levein must stay. All those who savour intelligence in Scottish football will echo that feeling.

Taken from the Scotsman