Craig Levein was involved with the decision making for appointing Hearts managers at one stage. But he has been perplexed by their approach in recent years.
When director of football, the 59-year-old appointed Robbie Neilson which went particularly well as he steered them back to the Premiership after administration, and finished third their first season back up. After that it was Ian Cathro, and that didn’t go quite so well.
Levein was then forced to install HIMSELF as manager as it was deemed there was no other suitable candidate fitting what the club were looking for. He ended up being sacked with the club staring relegation in the face.
The next appointment was a left-field one in Daniel Stendel before an SOS was sent to Neilson to come back and rescue them from the second tier again – which he did.
Another finish of third followed but he was sacked with the team sitting fourth the following campaign. His replacement Steven Naismith recently followed him back out of the revolving door.
Levein questions Hearts approach to hiring managers
Naismith’s successor is still being sought after talks with first choice Per-Mathias Høgmo fell apart, with Rob Page and Gary Rowett emerging as the latest new candidates.
The Tynecastle club have the assistance of Tony Bloom’s anayltics algorithm in looking for a new man as they’re also close to a deal for it’s use in player recruitment and investment from the Brighton owner.
But up until this point, Levein has been baffled how his old club have gone about things, and can’t figure out what it is they want from a manager.
Speaking exclusively to Not the Old Firm, he said: “I do think Hearts could put a little bit more thought into what it is they’re looking for before they put a manager in place. I think a lot of times it’s ‘look, we’ll get him, he might be alright. We’ll see if he does okay.’
“You have to know what you want your club to look like before you select a manager. You have to know if you want to be a team that’s really good defensively and fight and scrap. If that’s the case you need a manager that’s been successful at that in the past.
“I think sometimes they pluck people out of thin air without having the conversations with the manager about what it is the owners expect.
“And I think the days of managers getting time are over. When I was first starting out in management you would get time. And when you go into a job you’re generally taking over from someone who hasn’t been successful so you have problems to fix, and that takes time.
“So I think sometimes clubs don’t know what it is they are looking for and they just appoint someone who they think can do a job and get results. And I think that’s the wrong way of looking at it. I don’t understand the logic sometimes of teams selecting managers.”
Levein had ‘clear plan’ as Hearts director of football
Having been in the boardroom as director of football, Levein knows quite a bit about how these processes work.
Appointing managers was his responsiblity and he insists there was a clear plan when he was there, it was just that it simply didn’t work out with Cathro.
He added: “I had conversations with Ann Budge right at the beginning because it was my job to bring in a manager. The idea was we were going to develop youth players and give them opportunities in the first-team. So we chose Robbie Neilson because he’d been working with the younger players and hand a handle on what was at the club.
“After him it was Ian Cathro, which again was a gamble, but he did have a background of developing younger players. That was one of the things he was successful with in the academy at Dundee United. So there was a plan and a strategy there. It didn’t always work but I do think it is best to have a plan before you go into the appointment of a new manager.”