Levein still has a place in his heart for Gorgie club

NOT since he played for Cowdenbeath in a League Cup tie 23 years ago has Craig Levein faced Hearts in a competitive fixture. After serving the Tynecastle club for 14 years as a distinguished player and four more as a successful manager, Levein faces the novel task in charge of Dundee United this afternoon to ensure Hearts leave Tannadice empty-handed.

It's a challenge which would have carried an extra emotional charge if more survivors of the side he twice guided into third place in the SPL had still been filling the first team jerseys at Hearts. Of the team he left behind in the autumn of 2004, only Craig Gordon is sure to start today's match, though Paul Hartley and Robbie Neilson may also figure.
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"The core of the team I had has gradually gone from what it was to mostly guys I don't know," said Levein. "I still know some of them, and if they play, I know little things about them which might help us. But I'm up against my old club, not my old team. I don't think they're coming to Tannadice worried about me being the United manager.

"Having spent such a big part of my career with them, I still look for the Hearts' result every week and, yes, when they're not playing my team, I still want them to win. After such a long association, I still have feelings for the club - but that won't have any bearing whatsoever on Saturday's game."

Disappointed by the fate which awaited him at Leicester - he was sacked after slashing the wage bill - Levein nurses no regrets about leaving Hearts two years ago. If the current brouhaha surrounding Vladimir Romanov's regime is exhausting for the club's players and coaches, Levein was also worn out during Chris Robinson's regime by the controversy generated off the field over a possible move to Murrayfield.

"I did meet Mr Romanov and he asked me to stay on as the manager," Levein recalled. "But I'd already given my word to Leicester. So he asked me about the players and their strengths and weaknesses. He sounded genuine and it was clear he wanted to have a go.

"For me, though, it had got to the stage where I needed to get out of Tynecastle. If there was going to be another wage reduction, I didn't know how the team could improve. It was the right time to go because a lot of the supporters wanted a clean sweep and the chance to start again, which is what the club did.

"During the stadium saga, the football became secondary. Funnily enough, it's in danger of going the same way again now. But during my time, there was a momentum building opposed to Murrayfield which culminated in demonstrations and demands to get Chris Robinson out. In spite of decent results, the punters weren't happy and the money wasn't coming through the turnstiles. For me, the players did remarkably well to keep their focus, because, financially, I couldn't see a way out for the club. Ironically, of course, when I got to Leicester, the situation turned out to be exactly the same..."

Thoughtful and assured, Levein understands the dynamics of football well enough to impose shape and substance on most groups of players placed at his disposal. There's nothing surprising about the fact he's turned Dundee United around, nor the speed at which he's implemented change. Even so, five wins in seven games for a side previously entrenched at the bottom of the league - United are now ten points ahead of backmarkers Dunfermline - marks an impressive start to his career on Tayside.

Levein, 42, described the dilemma facing United's players when he succeeded Craig Brewster as akin to men piloting a burning Spitfire. As the club's sixth manager in four years, Levein has set off fire extinguishers and shown daredevil landing skills to pull off the possibility of a remarkable escape.

"Week to week things got worse and worse, and many of the players couldn't see a way out," he said. "Just the fact of changing the manager probably helped - they saw a fresh face, heard a new voice. Since then, in training, we've made sure the tempo is high because that's the way I want them to play in matches."

Ferociously competitive, yet blessed with a sharp sense of humour, Levein knows from personal experience that football can be fickle and long term planning can evaporate in the blink of an eye or the twist of a knee. (The boundaries of his own playing career, for example, were curtailed by cruciate ligament injuries.)

"I didn't really know what to expect when I came to Tannadice because I hadn't seen United play," he said. "Once I knew I was going to take the job, I watched lots of videos and DVDs to try and get up to speed. But I didn't come in with any expectations one way or the other.

"Beating Rangers in the first game was a big help because it gave the players some confidence. If we hadn't won that one, or the next, then life would have been a little bit more difficult. In my experience, the decent, hard working professionals just heap more pressure on themselves when things aren't going well. This also happened to me at Leicester, so I've had time to think about this. The truth is that trying even harder is just about the worst thing you can do. As soon as you start thinking you can't afford to lose a game, then inevitably losing is what happens.

"When I arrived, the players here were concentrating on all the wrong things. Because I'd been through it and had time to reflect on what I would do differently, I realised that when you're under pressure, you pressurise others to do better. And that's not the right thing to do. You have to take the pressure off everyone by not dwelling on the result. Get away from thinking about what happens if we lose.

"That's why, on the training ground, all we've done is work on little things which might help the players during games. We haven't spoken to them about league position or anything else. So, there's been a weight lifted from their shoulders."

Ian McCall, one of numerous predecessors at Tannadice, once complimented Levein on sharing some of the same attributes as Martin O'Neill. Like the former Celtic manager, who has made an immediate impact on Aston Villa's fortunes, Levein is rarely praised for the free-flowing stylishness of the football played by his charges. Indeed, he once clashed with Tony Mowbray, now the West Brom manager, over the contrasting styles of play employed by Hearts and Hibs and cheekily branded the English coach a sore loser.

There's more than one way to skin a cat in sport. In common with O'Neill, Levein inclines toward a direct style of play built on the foundation of a secure back four. That's why he was such a huge admirer of the power, speed and aggression of O'Neill's Celtic.

"For me, that Celtic side was a better one than the team at the top of the league just now," he insisted. "People can argue with me, but, in my opinion, Celtic had better players then. Ask anyone who was at Tynecastle during my time and they'll tell you that Henrik Larsson was the bane of our lives - he constantly scored goals against us. Having said that, I also think Gordon [Strachan] has done tremendously well to build a team which is achieving comparable results on a far tighter budget."

At their best, the Hearts team Levein pieced together was unyielding, strong and skilful. Although the side lacked flair on the flanks, his gifts as a coach were sufficiently broad to help Andy Webster develop from a raw teenage centre-half into a Scottish internationalist, Robbie Neilson to maximise his talent and Paul Hartley - after an indifferent club career as a forward - to hone his talent as an international central midfield player.

"When I took over at Hearts, Rangers and Celtic were mega-spenders. And the gap between second and third was immense. Unless the Old Firm go back to spending at a similar level, I don't think that's going to happen again. That's why it's not quite as difficult now for the rest of the clubs in the SPL to beat the Old Firm as it was five or six years ago."

Adaptable enough as a coach to find a system which suits his players, Levein has fielded a 4-5-1 formation at Tannadice which turns into 4-3-3 when Craig Conway and Collin Samuel have possession. "We have attacking players on the flanks and that gives us options," he said. "But there's still a lot of adapting to be done. I'm looking around for another, bigger striker with a bit of presence, though Noel Hunt has done fantastically well for us. He's improved in every game. Some of the defenders have also got better, though what we don't have yet is a formidable defence.

"We've also going to find out how strong some of the guys are mentally. In the SPL, particularly over the next couple of winter months, you have to roll up the sleeves and dig out results."

In an ideal world, Levein would add three players to his squad during the January transfer window. But if he can't identify players who are better than what he already has, he'll be tempted to keep the funds and make a bigger splash on longer-term deals in the summer.

Although he suffered at Leicester from cutting costs when a looser touch with the purse strings might have kept him in a job, Levein remains sufficiently selfless not to want to squander United chairman Eddie Thompson's money.

"The challenge here is to raise income," he noted. "But that won't be done overnight and it certainly won't be accomplished unless we can show sustained, gradual improvement year on year. Flashes in the pan won't work."

Luckily for United, their ambitious manager is true to type.


Taken from the Scotsman

Taken from the Scotsman