Two more years at Hearts ‘would complete Neilson’

IF appointing a rookie was a gamble, the fact that it paid off handsomely means keeping hold of him for the long term may prove something of a struggle.

The man who recruited Robbie Neilson, arguably Scotland’s manager of the year after a runaway Championship triumph in his first season at the helm, only hopes that the opportunity to develop further keeps him in Gorgie a little while longer.

Hearts director of football Craig Levein came straight to the point when he was asked about those currently employed by Hearts that he might face a fight to retain now the side is back in the top flight.

‘Robbie,’ he replied. ‘And I could name half a dozen players who, at some point, we’ll have a fight to keep. But the idea was always that this is an opportunity for Robbie to progress his career. I said once before, and I regretted it, that I could see him moving on to bigger and better things.

‘I really mean bigger things. Because I think this is a fantastic job for any young manager. I would want him to be ambitious.’

Levein f eels, however, that another couple of campaigns at Tynecastle would also help Neilson become the complete package as a manager.

‘This season, with so many things going right, this probably sounds silly — but he probably hasn’t learned an awful lot. I think he needs another couple of seasons to learn the other things.’

Levein has known Neilson since the latter was just a 16-year- old full-back and, although no one would claim an ability to spot future managers before they’ve even cracked the first team, the very nature of his career set him up for something beyond playing.

‘I took him on loan to Cowdenbeath when I was there and, when I came to Hearts, I put him on loan to Queen of the South — and he came back to play a lot of games for me,’ recalled Levein.

‘Everyone has their own idea about what makes a good head coach but, for me, it is pretty straightforward.

‘The guys who have had to work hard throughout their footballing career because their ability is limited ... for a guy with limited ability he played twice for Scotland!

‘So he is a problem solver. I know he is a good communicator because I know him as a person, he is honest and he had to work his backside off to achieve what he did as a player.

‘ There were some question marks, like how is he going to do managing a dressing room?

‘But I did my best to make that as easy as possible with the characters that came in and tried to give him the best platform possible to get off to a good start. He has exceeded everyone’s expectations by a hundredfold.

‘Every time you put a manager or a head coach in place, it is a gamble. Every time. No one can see into the future. Guys like Jose Mourinho are treasured because you know what you are getting. We couldn’t pay his wages for a day, never mind a season.

‘Of course it was a gamble. If your model works this way and you have someone good working with kids and developing them ... he knows the game and his decision making from the touchline has been fabulous.’

Levein, who has watched with satisfaction as Neilson and his coaching team have blown away all opposition — i ncluding a Rangers s quad expensively assembled purely with a final great leap forward in mind — knew he needed someone open to the idea of working under a director of football.

The model established at Hearts, with Levein involved in scouting and squad building but leaving Neilson to manage the first team, is one that the former Dundee United and Scotland manager had thought about for some time.

Explaining how the subject arose during a meeting with prospective Hearts owner Ann Budge, he said: ‘She asked me what a football club looks like, because she had no idea.

‘A few years earlier, a mate of mine had been going to buy Dundee United and he asked me what a football club should look like. I had put something together for him and I effectively tidied it up a bit for Ann.

‘You have to work out what type of club you need to be. That was the biggest challenge at the start. What is it we want to do?

‘It was fairly easy here because we had about half a dozen kids already in the team so that model is proven.

‘For me, it’s simple. If you want to use that type of model then you use that type of coach. That type of coach is on the training ground two or three times a day.

‘ With Robbie, every training session is working towards the team we’re playing at the end of the week. Robbie, Stevie Crawford and Jack Ross spend hours looking at the opposition we’ll be playing the following week.

‘ He’s got t wo guys, Scott McLennan and Ian Miller who go and watch the opposition — one of them two weeks in advance, the other one week in advance.

‘As soon as our game is finished, they’re off Sunday and Monday, then from the Tuesday onwards they’re focusing on the next game. And t r aining has been j ust excellent.

‘The hardest thing for me was the situation last May with Gary Locke, letting him go, which was really tough because I like him and he is a good guy.

‘But he is a different type of manager to Robbie.’