You used to get time. Now people want you out if you lose a pre-season game!
Craig Levein listens to the cacophony of noise aimed at managers in Scottish football — and is deafened by the ‘crazy’ sounds emanating from irate fans and pundits.
His message to young players is to block out the anger. How easy that will be, however, is very much debatable.
The Hearts head coach is full of sympathy for Celtic boss Neil Lennon. The fury directed in the Northern irishman’s direction has been cranked up a level.
Despite scoring 12 goals in their opening two Premiership fixtures, Lennon has been heavily criticised after the Parkhead club suffered a disastrous defeat in their Champions League qualifier against Cluj.
Levein cannot keep quiet amid this fury. The Tynecastle boss has come under fire for his side’s stuttering start to the campaign and also notes the questions asked of Paul Heckingbottom at Hibernian and aberdeen boss Derek Mcinnes.
But for the 54-year-old, whose side travel to Celtic Park on Sunday, silencing critics is no easy task in these ‘extreme’ circumstances.
asked about Celtic receiving stick, Levein replied: ‘Yeah, they have — but give me a crisis like that any day!
‘Seven goals and five goals? The world has gone crazy. Listen, i am under pressure as well, am i not? and Paul and Del and everybody! it’s getting crazy.
‘it used to be you’d get to November before anything happened to managers. Then it was October — now if you lose a pre-season game people lose their s***.
‘Social media is a huge part of it because generally it’s the extreme. Everything is brilliant or crap. The truth, thankfully, with most of the owners is it’s somewhere in between.
‘But i look at it now and think: “This is crazy”. i was about to say i don’t understand it but i do, it’s the immediacy of it all.
‘People want things to happen now and that suits you guys (media) as well because it’s something to write about.
‘How do you shield yourself from it? Win every week! i just ignore the noise. Most of the complaints are from people at the extremes. Sometimes you get praised for not doing much.
‘Most ordinary people are getting on with their lives and use football at the weekend for relaxation and pleasure. Unfortunately, i can’t use it for relaxation or pleasure!
‘it does get ridiculous. it used to be you got plenty of time to shape a team and tinker here and there. Now almost after every match you get this hysteria, as Lenny calls it.
‘They’ve won 7-0 and 5-2. if we do that in our next two games, i’d be quite happy!
‘it was always the same, but it was never as high and never as low. Now it’s this instant gratification. and then it becomes a snowball coming down a hill.’
Levein has removed himself from reading comments online and posts on social media.
For the manager to escape it is one thing — but for his players, especially younger ones, avoiding criticism remains difficult. ‘i don’t get involved in reading stuff,’ said Levein. ‘i stopped reading social media or comments online a long time ago.
‘it’s not helpful when you are doing well to read everything is fine because you know there’s a pothole just around the corner.
‘and when you’re inside a club and know how hard everyone is working, you know some of the criticism is not accurate because you can see what’s going on.
‘But over the last four or five years it has taken on a new aggression, i would say, that wasn’t there before.
‘it’s me who’s getting stick, not the players! i’m just jesting of course, the pressure is on everyone.
‘i get the pleasure of seeing how hard they work on the training ground. and that gives me confidence that, if we do go through a difficult period, we can come out the other end. ignore the noise, that’s the message.
‘The ones who have been over the course before have more experience of that. it doesn’t mean they don’t get affected, the best players can get affected at Tynecastle when things aren’t going well. i remember i had a bad game once!’
Encouraging his players to focus on praise received from the management, Levein added: ‘i would say to the young players don’t go looking for praise on social media because you’re just going to find criticism. That’s my message to them.
‘You don’t need a pat on the back outside the club. Take the pat on the back you get from your team-mates and the coaches — and take the boot up the a*** you get from them, too.
‘Because that will be real and will have the right measure of severity.
‘Outside the club, there’s people frothing out there who have no idea of what’s going on. i think it’s just widespread now, it’s become a thing.’
Hearts travel to Celtic after a loss at aberdeen on the opening day and an uninspiring draw at home to ross County.
Levein expects new signing glenn Whelan to feature at some stage, with the irishman returning to full fitness after an appearance for the reserves during midweek.
‘glenn is our latest signing and he played 90 minutes on Tuesday and never broke out of first gear,’ said Levein.
‘He’ll be involved on Sunday. i don’t know if he’ll start or come off the bench but he’ll be involved.’