Levein believes he can still make a difference just as the point of no return looms in capital

CRAIG LEVEIN knows what it’s like to realise that he’s merely hollering into the void. He recognises the signs of a dressing room lost, a squad no longer responding to his master’s voice.

The Hearts boss does not believe that he has reached that point of no return at Tynecastle. Not yet, anyway.

‘This is quite simple,’ said levein, addressing questions about his future ahead of an Edinburgh derby with the potential to break — but perhaps not make — the reputation of two managers.

‘If I don’t think I can have an influence on these players that helps them win matches, then I’m wasting my time and everyone else’s time.

‘I felt that at leicester at the moment I left. I felt the window had closed, I felt I couldn’t do any more with the players.

‘I didn’t feel there was a connection, I didn’t feel I could influence the way they played. That’s a different thing altogether.

‘That’s not what I feel here. I have good connections with the players, my job right now is to help them get over this little mini-hurdle.’

That’s quite an understatement, calling Hearts’ current predicament a mini anything.

Sitting bottom of the Scottish Premiership, they’ve faced fans’ protests against both the gaffer and the board continuing to support him.

Despite the inevitable public vote of confidence, talk of a shortlist of replacements being kept to hand — even if it is nothing more than sensible contingency planning for any club — isn’t easily dismissed.

There are questions over whether levein can ever recover from being so roundly pilloried by even a vocal minority.

‘People voice their pleasure in different ways,’ he continued. ‘Some choose to stand outside the ground and shout after games.

‘others go home and are just grumpy for the rest of the night. Maybe they write something online.

‘But, being out and about in Edinburgh, being at reserve and academy games, I can honestly say I’ve not had a negative comment.

‘all I’ve had is people telling me to keep digging in and they’ll support the team.

‘That encourages me much more than the negativity gets me down. I know where we are, I understand the problems. My job is to fix them.

‘If I can get us climbing the table, which I think I’m more than capable of doing, then even the ones who have been outside the stadium after the games… I’m not saying they’ll be happy but they’ll certainly keep their anger for another day.

‘I need to fix the football thing to allow the rest to calm down.

‘Eventually, results determine everything. you know that. That’s the way it works.’

levein’s experience as a coach, including a previous spell at Hearts, that stint at leicester, happy times with Dundee United and a typically bruising reign as Scotland manager, means few things surprise him.

agreeing that the ‘elephant in the room’ may as well be emblazoned with the words ‘job security’ on its flank, he answered a question about whether he lost sleep over the situation by admitting: ‘of course. For me, there’s personal pride — I’m in charge of the team and we’re sitting at the bottom of the league.

‘That’s the biggest worry that I have, trying to improve our situation to climb the table. My view is that this group of players are more than capable of doing that.

‘Pressure is a funny thing to deal with. Not all types of pressure are the same. The important thing for me is getting the players in a position where they can do well in this match, that’s all I’m interested in.

‘our pressure recently has been about being favourites in the match, at home, where we have to do the running, have more off the ball, have to be more creative — and we haven’t coped with that particularly well.

‘But now we are dealing with a different thing. This is a fight for dominance in Edinburgh. That brings a different type of pressure.’

looking and sounding at ease a full 48 hours and more before kick-off, levein still cares enough to argue points of order.

When someone mentioned the popular dissident material showing Hearts rock bottom of a league table for all teams since last october, he asked: ‘So we’re introducing hypothetical tables?

‘From my point of view, looking at last season and this season are two different things.

‘We have changed players, we have started again. I think we have a better squad than we did last year.

‘at this minute in time, the league table doesn’t tell you that and I accept that.

‘If we hadn’t given away five goals this season we’d be sitting third. That’s a hypothetical table as well.

‘So that doesn’t really mean anything. all I can do is focus on now, what’s happened in the past is in the past.’

Hearts skipper Christophe Berra has seen enough of these fixtures to make even the unexpected seem run-of-the-mill.

‘I don’t know what the atmosphere will be like, it will be a strange one,’ he said, responding to questions about levein’s ability to motivate the players by declaring: ‘We’re all adults.

‘The manager’s job is to motivate and that’s part of the criteria. But we’re all professionals and, if you can’t motivate yourself to go out there and play…

‘It’s a privilege to be playing for Hearts and playing professional football and people would give an arm and a leg to do it.

‘If you don’t do that there is something wrong with your dedication. you can’t just turn up when things are going well.’