Gers blew Walker bid with broken promises
Heart manager Levein rips into Ibrox chiefs for failure to sign star
NEW Hearts manager Craig Levein has accused Rangers of breaking promises made to Jamie Walker over their failed attempt to sign the playmaker during the transfer window.
The Ibrox club had three bids turned down for the 24-year-old, with the Gorgie outfit holding out for £1million.
Rangers’ well-documented pursuit of Walker even unsettled the player, with the attacking midfielder being left out of the team at the start of the season after being said to lose focus. And as Levein prepares to return to the dugout against Premiership leaders Aberdeen at Murrayfield, the former Scotland manager admits he has not been impressed by how their Glasgow counterparts have conducted themselves.
Levein said: “If I was Jamie I’d be disappointed that a lot of the promises made to him weren’t kept. And not from our club.
“I can understand it, he’s had a disappointment. I don’t know how many times as a player here I heard Liverpool had made a bid or Tottenham had made a bid but you just get on with it.
“I think that’s important, any player has to keep their focus on what they are doing, because once you start drifting away and thinking about other things it affects your performance.
“Jamie has trained excellently, he really has. He even made a couple of tackles on Tuesday.
“I haven’t had a conversation with him. He has trained fantastically well since the beginning of the week. For me, Jamie Walker is another player. If he does work on the training ground, he will play.”
LEVEIN enjoyed a successful spell in the Hearts dugout for four years up until 2004 and admits he will revert to basics in the first instance in an attempt to trigger an upturn in the team’s fortunes.
Ian Cathro was sacked as head coach after overseeing a meagre eight wins from 30 matches, while caretaker Jon Daly guided the side to one victory from the first four matches of this term.
Levein added: “It’s about not over-complicating things. Making the training a little bit simpler – until everybody feels they know what they’re doing.
“Once they reach that point and get their confidence, we can start again. We need to fix some things. We lack a little bit of confidence just now.”
Hearts take on an Aberdeen side tomorrow who sit at the topflight summit having won their four opening games, despite losing the likes of Niall McGinn and Jonny Hayes during the summer.
But Levein believes Derek McInnes’ side, who have finished runners-up in the league for the past three seasons, are arguably stronger than last term.
He added: “If you look at the players who moved on in the summer you could argue the players they have brought in are better. It’s a huge credit to them that while they are doing that they are winning games.”