Levein bitter after taste of 'sour grapes'

MIKE AITKEN

THOSE of us reared on a diet of Jock Stein, Tommy Docherty and Alex Ferguson would never have collected the utterings of forthright football managers in a manual dedicated to political correctness. The contemporary scene, though, is so bland that the sayings of a new generation of Scottish bosses could easily provide the scripts for the Teletubbies.

In such cosy circumstances, Craig Levein’s frank remarks about his opposite number in Edinburgh, Tony Mowbray, were all the more astonishing. Irked by the inference that his side put a premium on physique rather than skill and upset by what he interpreted as a snub in the aftermath of the Edinburgh derby, the head coach of Hearts raised more than a few eyebrows yesterday when he accused the manager of Hibs of being a poor loser who prefers to make critical comments through the media rather than speak his mind in private.

Already concerned that Mowbray had shown a lack of respect when he didn’t come into his office for the traditional post-match chat on Sunday, Levein’s temperature must have risen a few degrees higher when the Hibs manager argued that, in time, his team would emerge as a far more complete footballing side.

"Everybody considered us to be the big bullies against the little boys," Levein reflected. "There was a lot of talk about the physical aspect of the derby, not from us, but from the manager who lost.

"If you looked at the video analysis of the derby, our first goal was at the end of a great passing move. I thought the quality of our build-up play was excellent. I very rarely talk about the opposition other than to compliment them. But what Tony had to say about us was a lorryload of sour grapes. Maybe he found [the defeat] difficult to take.

"In football, when you lose, I think you should take it on the chin. That’s what we do. You won’t find us complaining about other teams being bigger and stronger than us."

As befits the best young manager in Scotland, Levein isn’t a soft touch who can be tempted by wily hacks into saying something he’d rather keep mum about. And the Hearts coach has long believed his achievements at Tynecastle have been damned by faint praise from some of his peers about ‘competitiveness’.

When Mowbray added his tuppence worth about Hearts being a physical lot who kept lacing the ball into the Hibs’ box, Levein obviously decided it was time to stand his corner.

"We enjoy winning matches and I know what our supporters like," added the coach. "In fact, I know what Scottish supporters like. They want their teams to be competitive and try to win games. I’m fed up reading about certain teams who want to play lovely, flowing football. Once others realise if you press Hibs high up the park, then they can’t play and are going to struggle. When we pressed them in that way, they resorted to hitting it long to Garry O’Connor.

"Hibs were lucky if they strung five or six passes together on Sunday. But people were still talking about free-flowing football, I didn’t see it. I couldn’t tell you if either Stephen Glass or Guillaume Beuzelin were playing in the game, to be honest with you. I think if you look at Hartley, Phil Stamp, Ramon Pereira and Joe Hamill, we do have flair in our team. But that gets overlooked when other managers gripe about how they lost the match. At the end of the day, we don’t really give a hoot about anyone else. If in the next derby match we beat them because we forced two corners and have bigger players than them, well, go into any pub in Gorgie and try and tell people that’s not [how you’re supposed to play the game]. My guess is they won’t give a toss.

"Our organisation is good and our goals-against column is as good as anyone’s. Maybe that’s why we finish high up the league and get into Europe.

"I make no apologies for putting out a side which makes challenges and doesn’t give others too much respect."

Levein was also concerned when Mowbray didn’t come into his office after Hearts defeated Hibs 3-1 in the Festival Cup match at Tynecastle earlier this season. Since the Englishman again chose to break with tradition on Sunday, the Scot was riled enough by Mowbray’s comments regarding the physical aspect of Hearts’ play to make public his feelings.

"All I’m trying to do is respond through the media, because he won’t come into my office and talk to me," explained the Hearts’ coach. "If he wants to talk about my team through the newspapers, let him do it from a position of strength."

When told about Levein’s concerns, Mowbray said: "I was deep in discussion with [managing director] Rod Petrie after the match, as I do usually, and my staff were in the office. I phoned to pass on my apologies. To me it was a non-event and happens quite often. In an ideal world, you go and see the opposition manager and staff and have a chat about the game. It wasn’t a conscious thing not to go. I’m not the kind of person who would do that.

"If Craig has taken offence, then that’s unfortunate. I’ll give him a ring to let him know it was totally unpremeditated.

To me this is laughable, but if he thinks there’s a problem then I’ll phone him and we’ll have a chat. It’s not even worth discussing. In fact, it’s embarrassing that it’s being made an issue."

On whether or nor he’d denigrated the way Hearts play, Mowbray retorted: "I don’t want to get into a slanging match [with him] and I won’t do that. We’ll talk about it one on one. I talk about the game as I see it and it’s disappointing if he takes it that way. I don’t think Hearts are too physical because football is a physical game. If you have talented and physical players then you will be successful. Celtic have more physical players than anyone and look at how successful they are. To me, the game is about expressing yourself and getting the ball down and playing.

"Hearts are a physical side and there’s nothing wrong with competing. I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have a big, strong, physical team as long as they could play. To say Hearts are physical was not meant as a criticism.

"I’ve never criticised any other manager’s team. It’s good management to play to the strengths of your team. We have small, technical footballers and have to play that type of game. They have more physical players. On the day, their strengths were greater than ours."

Taken from the Scotsman