Levein ready to rock and roll as Hearts prepare European tour

Tynecastle manager delighted at UEFA Cup adventure that means packed campaign against top sides

GRAEME CROSER

CRAIG LEVEIN knows Hearts are facing a crash course in European football - and the head coach intends to lap up every second of it.

The Tynecastle boss could barely contain his excitement at the UEFA Cup draw which will see his side take on Feyenoord, Schalke, Basel and Ferencvaros over a whirlwind eight-week period.

First up is a trip to Rotterdam to face Ruud Gullit’s Feyenoord before Germans Schalke visit Murrayfield for what is likely to be a crowd and cash-pulling encounter.

Christian Gross’ Basel are the hosts for the penultimate clash and the section will be rounded off on December 16 when Ferencvaros, conquerors of Millwall in the previous round, visit the home of Scottish rugby.

Levein has already started preparing dossiers on all four opponents and the excitement in his voice was palpable as he discussed the prospect of pitting his wits against former world footballer of the year Gullit and the highly-respected Gross, who put Celtic’s Champions League hopes to the sword just a couple of years ago.

It’s all new territory for Hearts, a world away from the grind of the SPL, and Levein certainly seems invigorated by the challenge.

He said: "The whole thing excites me, it really does. Getting the opportunity to play so many different styles of football in such a short space of time is very unusual.

"Normally you would have to advance to the quarter or semi-finals to gain so much experience and we’re going to have that within the space of a few weeks.

"When you look at the quality of the opposition, the stadiums we will play in and the respective managers of these teams it makes it very exciting.

"The league positions of these teams tell you everything you need to know. Basel and Ferencvaros are top of their respective leagues, Feyenoord are second and Schalke seventh.

"These are high-quality teams and the whole idea behind getting here was to pit ourselves against that sort of opposition."

Levein has already planned a trip to Holland to watch Feyenoord in action against Roda while he will have Schalke watched soon. The Germans lifted the trophy in 1997 but recently sacked the former Real Madrid boss Jupp Heynckes, replacing him with Ralf Rangnick.

Gross, who had an unsuccessful spell with Tottenham, has re-established his reputation with Basel and the trip to the Swiss’ St Jakob Park will prove tricky for Levein’s side.

The final match against Hungarians Ferencvaros could prove decisive and Levein can take comfort in the fact he should be well prepared.

The Jambos’ pre-season trip to Canada saw them compete in a tournament with Millwall, and already moves have been made to sound out manager Dennis Wyness and assistant Ray Wilkins, who had a brief spell with Hibs in the mid 90s.

Levein continued: "I really can’t wait. There’s not a lot of time to pool information on these sides but we’ve already started putting feelers out. We’re fortunate that we were in Canada with Millwall over the summer because they faced Ferncvaros in the last round.

"I knew Ray Wilkins anyway but we built up a good relationship with Dennis Wise as well and hopefully that will prove helpful.

"We’ll try and gather as much on each side as we can because you can never have enough. We had Braga watched four times before we played them in the last round and that paid off.

"I’ve already booked my flight to go and see Feyenoord play Roda and we’ll try and come up with a gameplan.

"Most importantly, we need to do everything we can to learn how to stop these teams playing.

"I love testing myself in these situations and it’s going to be great to see how we do in these different situations."

Levein is hoping his rivals underestimate Hearts - just as he believed Braga did in the first round.

The performance in the second leg in Portugal, when Mark de Vries scored twice, was one of the club’s finest under Levein and he believes more than anyone the big Dutchman will have a point to prove in the opening game.

He added: "Mark will be delighted at this draw because it allows him to go back to his home country and prove he is a better player than he was ever given credit for.

"Feyenoord are a massive team with a great European pedigree. They were the top seeds in the group and are just a huge club with a great stadium. I think we’ll get a decent following over there because Rotterdam is not a difficult place to get to.

"It’s a really good one to start with and if we can get a reasonable result, maybe sneaking a point, I would be delighted with that.

"We’ve been strong away from home in Europe. Many of our players have only played in three European away ties and they have a good record. We’ve won once, drawn the other two and kept a couple of clean sheets along the way.

"I’m a believer in using positive experiences to your advantage and hopefully the players will bear these results in mind.

"Anybody who believes we are happy just to have got this far are underestimating the players and what they are all about.

"There is a great determination and desire among the squad to prove they are a good side and can compete at this level.

"It’s very difficult to say what might take us through. It’s like looking at a four-game league programme and saying we are looking for so many points but that’s for other people to do.

"We want to send out some kind of signal that we are not the diddy team. Maybe it’s not a bad thing for the others to view us like that. They will know about the other two teams in Glasgow but perhaps before the draw they looked at us and said ‘there’s a Scottish team’ maybe we could get them’.

"I think Braga underestimated us and I’m hoping the same happens again because that could give us an advantage."

Taken from the Scotsman