Levein is backing Budge for top post
After Scotland trauma, Levein has new lease of life in a very different role
CRAIG LEVEIN believes Scottish football will be missing out if Ann Budge’s voice of reason isn’t heard in the corridors of power. Hearts owner Budge has spoken about seeking a position on either the SFA’s professional game board or the SPFL board. And former Scotland boss Levein, a man with experience of Hampden politics from his time at the forefront of SFA reform, believes the game would be better for her influence. ‘I would love to see Ann in that sort of thing,’ said the Hearts director of football, when asked about his employer — who is already on the SFA Council — joining one of the more powerful bodies. ‘Ann is fair, she is calm and, most unusually for football, all she is concerned with is what is happening in five
HAVING borne witness to the breaking of Craig Levein upon the wheel of the Scotland job, it is a great relief to find that all of the pieces have been re-assembled in full working order. And all it took was a chance to do something completely different … in very familiar surroundings. Battered and, as he admits, bruised by an experience unsuited to someone uncomfortable in the face of constant and cutting criticism, Levein confesses to having been sorely tempted by some of the overseas offers that arose in the wake of his departure from the Scotland gig.
If the chance to manage the Sri Lankan national team wasn’t overly tempting, opportunities in Australia and the USA held a definite appeal. Mainly because they were a long way from the scene of his downfall.
One year into his appointment as director of football for Hearts, and blessed with the benefit of hindsight, it now seems odd that Levein should have considering anything but this backroom-boardroom hybrid post.
Ask him if returning to Tynecastle as head of the football department simply felt like the perfect way to bounce back from his Scotland experience, though, Levein insisted: ‘I don’t know if there was a perfect way to come back.
‘There is no doubt with the Scotland thing, the end was bruising. And, when you’ve got a thin skin, it doesn’t help. I was thinking about going abroad somewhere, just to start again.
‘I had something in Australia, half a chance to get something in the States, as well.
‘It’s like anybody else. No one likes getting criticised. And the Scotland job is not a great place to be if you do not like getting criticised.
‘I have enjoyed being out of the limelight — and that attention is not something I particularly enjoyed prior to that, either.
‘I was looking at it and wondering: “Where am I going to work after the Scotland job — Scotland?”
‘I have been at Hearts and I have been at Dundee United. Maybe go down to England? Well, I have been at Leicester City and that did not work out. It was more about where can I get a decent job?
‘I even had the Sri Lankan national team wondering if I would be interested. I was like: “Nope, not for me.” But, again, you find out things.
‘The Scotland job was brilliant. That week or two weeks you had the players, it was brilliant. Exciting. It was a real buzz.
‘But the rest of the time, you are sitting in a car, up and down the motorway.
‘I can see why Gordon Strachan lives in England. Looking back on it, I would have been better doing the same sort of thing, going into the office occasionally. But when you have l oads of energy, i t’s different.’
That enforced inactivity has been a problem for a number of Scotland managers.
Alex McLeish was driven to distraction by long days of viewing and reviewing video of opponents, while Walter Smith used to escape by babysitting the grandchildren every now and again.
A return to club management, with its never-ending list of crises and problems, would surely have been the perfect antidote to all of the hanging around that makes up a big part of the international job.
Levein admits that, when one of Ann Budge’s regular brain-picking sessions with the former Hearts boss turned to a j ob offer, he initially thought a return to the home dugout at Tynecastle was on the table.
Perhaps surprising even himself, he found it less appealing than anyone would have thought.
‘Ann asked me if I wanted to work for the club — and I thought she was talking about the manager’s job,’ he explained.
‘I had been there before and I am not convinced coming back as a manager for a second time is the right thing to do.
‘I had my sights set on doing something different l i ke going abroad. But when she mentioned running the football department, I felt that was a bit different.
‘At first, I said that wasn’t what I do, but it came about and then I started looking at the football side of things.
‘I don’t get the same buzz I got as a manager. The buzz is different — and the depression is different!
‘I don’t have the same feeling waking up on a Saturday morning. I don’t have butterflies i n my stomach.
‘Part of that is I know how much preparation has gone into the planning. As the season has gone on, I’ve been able to relax more.
‘But it’s not the same. When you are on that t o uchl i ne, it’ s t he loneliest place in the world, at times. Other times, it’s the best place in the world.
‘So I don’t get those extremes that you get in management.’
As f or whether he might be tempted back to the front line, Levein said: ‘ I’m not ruling anything in or out. I just know this is something that is a lot more challenging than I thought it would be.
‘I want to keep an eye on first - team stuff and be at training. That’s because, if you get that right, it breaks down barriers to fixing other things. As long as the first team is winning, everybody is happy.
‘That means you can do things and people won’t question you about it. But when things aren’t going well, it’s hard to change things. So we’ve made a lot of changes and the way has been paved by winning games.’
Levein has visibly relaxed since his return to Tynecastle as part of the Budge-Foundation of Hearts takeover; that’s partly down to the success of head coach Robbie Neilson, partly because he has rediscovered a purpose.
Levein has kept out of the spotlight deliberately over the past year, always happy to chat in a social setting but clamming up when invited to share his thoughts with the wider public.
Comfortable enough to joke about having missed those regular grillings from the media, he admits that he still watches and supports his national team.
‘Yes, I still get on brilliantly with the players,’ he said, ‘and Gordon has done a brilliant job.’
That he has. And, if it doesn’t work out, Strachan can at l east be assured that failing with Scotland doesn’t necessarily add a full stop to a man’s career.
As long as he can find the right place, the right people and the right job, a full rehabilitation is entirely possible.