Decisions on tactics and teams are made by Robbie. I will never interfere

IT is a post viewed with s us pi ci o n by t he majority of old-school ‘ fitba men’. A newfangled way of explaining boardroom meddling.

Certainly something Craig Levein would not have put up with back when he was head coach, manager and lord of all he surveyed.

Yet, Scotland’s most prominent director of football insists that, as other clubs continue to pester him for details of the Hearts model, the days of old- style managers running all aspects of a f ootball department are numbered.

‘The director of football thing, the sporting director, whatever you want to call it — it’s coming,’ said Levein, the former Hearts, Dundee United and Scotland boss adding: ‘There are clubs in Scotland phoning me, asking me: “What do I do? How do we set this up?”

‘It’s coming to the UK. Les Reed has done the j ob at Southampton and everyone is looking and saying: “How can So u t h a mpton constantly perform at that level?”

‘The days of Mourinhos and Fergusons and Wengers … it’s getting too big. They control things because they’ve got huge personalities, massive personalities. I did it at Dundee United. Trying to run a club from top to bottom is not easy, there are so many things going.’

The key, according to Levein, is not just establishing guidelines on who does what — securing the manager’s final say over team s el ecti on etc — but t he personalities of those involved in a set-up common on the Continent yet resisted here in the UK.

He explained: ‘ I’m on the training ground but I never say anything. I never interfere or say anything. It was hard at first but, now, I’m actually enjoying it.

‘It’s so that if (head coach) Robbie Neilson asks me what I thought about a player in training that day, I can tell him. It happens all the time, just an extra set of eyes.

‘I was down in Manchester last week at a conference, my first ever di re c t or of f ootball conference. And the big topic was, you know, what is a sporting director, technical director, director of football? Where are the boundaries? Where are the guidelines?

‘For me it’s quite clear. When I spoke to Robbie the night before we came in, I told him there were a number of things we needed to discuss.

‘He is responsible for picking the squad, picking the team, the tactics and managing from the sidelines. That’s his job. Once that is clear, the rest falls into place. I’m not saying that’s the right model for everybody but it works for us.

‘For identifying players to sign, it’s John Murray, myself and, of course, Robbie has a part in it. Of course he does.

‘It wasn’t like me saying: “Bang! You’re allowed to do this and you’re not allowed to do that.” It was a conversation about what I can help with, allowing him to focus on the team.

‘The only thing I had in mind was when I spoke to Robbie about what I can do and what he can do. He’s responsible for tactics, that’s his decision, he’s responsible for who plays in the t eam on Saturday. That’s completely and utterly up to him.

‘All of those things, I’m there to help him if he needs me.

‘It’s all right saying you have a template, but it’s personalities. If you put the wrong people in there it’s never going to work. If y ou have an e xperienced manager and put a director of football in on top of that, it’s never going to work.’

Asked outright if he would ever have c onsented to being overlooked by a director of football, technical director or any variation on the theme, Levein confessed: ‘No. This is what I’m trying to say: the template can be there, but it’s about personalities. It’s about people. The coach has to look upon it as a help to him rather than a hindrance.

‘For the important things for Robbie’s career, he’s got an input into every single thing. He’s got a decision to sign three centrebacks — he decides.

‘I think it’s coming because clubs are so big, particularly down in England. To manage the whole thing is becoming more and more difficult.’