Craig: Gers let down Jamie on dream move
From Back Page seen his dream move fall through, as Gers repeatedly failed to meet the £1million valuation with their bids as talks went all the way to the transfer deadline.
Walker could yet sign a pre-contract agreement in January but Levein, who could select him for his first game in charge against Aberdeen tomorrow, still feels the player was let down.
He said: “I don’t want to go into too much detail but if I was Jamie I’d be a little bit disappointed that a lot of the promises made to him weren’t kept. And not from our club.
“I can understand he’s had a disappointment. I don’t know how many times as a player I heard Liverpool or Tottenham had made a bid but you just get on with it.
“That’s important, any player has to keep their focus, because once you start drifting away and thinking about other things it affects your performance.”
That appears to have affected Walker as he was left out of a handful of Hearts games by previous boss Ian Cathro and caretaker gaffer Jon Daly amid accusations he had lost focus having had his head turned by Gers.
But Levein, impressed by his performance in training, believes he is ready to put that behind him and focus on doing the business for Hearts.
He said: “Jamie has trained fantastically well since the beginning of the week.
“He even made a couple of tackles!
“I haven’t had a conversation with him but Jamie is another player who – if he does the work on the training ground – will play.”