The Managers: Craig Levein, 2004-2006

[davieG]

Club Historian John Historian resumes his feature on Leicester City's permanent managers with a look back to Craig Levein's spell in charge on Filbert Way.

When Levein was appointed Leicester City’s manager in October 2004, the Scotsman arrived with an impressive playing and managerial record.

Levein made his name as a defender in Scotland. After two seasons at Cowdenbeath, he spent the next 14 years at Heart of Midlothian and was the Scottish PFA Young player of the Year in 1985 and 1986.

Despite two serious knee injuries, he made over 450 appearances for the Tynecastle club, many as captain.

During his playing career there, Hearts finished runners-up in the Scottish Premiership, as well as reaching the 1986 Scottish FA Cup final.

Levein also played for Scotland 16 times between 1990 and 1994, including an appearance in the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy.

 

Forced to retire in 1987 with another knee injury, he managed Cowdenbeath between 1997 and December 2000, laying the foundations for their promotion in May 2001, by which time he had returned to Heart of Midlothian as manager.

In October 2004, Leicester City, struggling in the Championship following their relegation from the Premier League, appointed Levein as their new manager, with Rob Kelly as his assistant.

The board was impressed by his achievement in rejuvenating Hearts and in leading them into Europe for two successive seasons.

With Leicester City’s period in administration a recent memory, Levein's vision was to develop players through the Academy, reduce the age of the squad, sign younger players on long term contracts, have players living locally, and ensure financial prudence.

 

He soon signed Alan Maybury, Mark de Vreis and, later, Patrick Kisnorbo from his old club, but by New Year 2005, the team was struggling in 15th position in the Championship.

However, Leicester did reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, before succumbing to Premier League Blackburn Rovers.

The 2005/06 season started badly with a 4-1 defeat at Sheffield United. David Connelly, meanwhile, was transferred to Wigan Athletic on the August transfer deadline day, just after 15 year-old Ashley Chambers had become the Club’s youngest-ever player.

Six successive league defeats between mid-December and the end of January left Leicester City in 22nd-place in the Championship table, although amazingly, after the third of these defeats, Tottenham Hotspur were defeated 3-2 in the FA Cup after they had taken a two goal lead.

 

Despite the signing of Matty Fryatt, in late January, Levein was sacked following the sixth defeat in succession at Plymouth. Kelly, his assistant, was appointed caretaker manager, assisted by Mike Stowell, and the Club was able to stave off relegation.

After a brief period managing Raith Rovers, Levein became Dundee United’s manager in October 2006, additionally becoming, director of football in 2008.

Levein left Tannadice Park in December 2009 for a three-year spell as Scotland’s national team manager, but failure to qualify for the 2012 UEFA Euros and a lack of success in qualifying games for the 2014 FIFA World Cup resulted in him leaving the post in November 2012.

Eighteen months later, Levein returned to Hearts as director of football, a post he still holds, together with the post of manager, to which he was appointed in August 2017.

 

https://www.lcfc.com/news/1153964/the-managers-craig-levein-20042006

[OntarioFox]

Cup runs aside, the Levein era was where the rot really set in for our club. With the possible exception of Kisnorbo, we signed some right gash and our position in the table over the ensuing years was deserved, given what a shell of our former selves we'd become.

Lucky for me, I missed it as 11 year old me had lost interest in football at the time, and didn't pick it back up until the... um... Ollie "era".  Heard plenty of horror stories from my Dad though 

[davieG]

He was between a rock and hard place massive budget reduction and little to attract decent players as we were still seen as a club in turmoil post admin.

[DB11]

That Tottenham game though I remember De Vries scoring the winner. It was amazing

[Ted Maul]

17 minutes ago, davieG said:

Club Historian John Historian resumes his feature on Leicester City's permanent managers with a look back to Craig Levein's spell in charge on Filbert Way.

When Levein was appointed Leicester City’s manager in October 2004, the Scotsman arrived with an impressive playing and managerial record.

Levein made his name as a defender in Scotland. After two seasons at Cowdenbeath, he spent the next 14 years at Heart of Midlothian and was the Scottish PFA Young player of the Year in 1985 and 1986.

Despite two serious knee injuries, he made over 450 appearances for the Tynecastle club, many as captain.

During his playing career there, Hearts finished runners-up in the Scottish Premiership, as well as reaching the 1986 Scottish FA Cup final.

Levein also played for Scotland 16 times between 1990 and 1994, including an appearance in the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy.

 

Forced to retire in 1987 with another knee injury, he managed Cowdenbeath between 1997 and December 2000, laying the foundations for their promotion in May 2001, by which time he had returned to Heart of Midlothian as manager.

In October 2004, Leicester City, struggling in the Championship following their relegation from the Premier League, appointed Levein as their new manager, with Rob Kelly as his assistant.

The board was impressed by his achievement in rejuvenating Hearts and in leading them into Europe for two successive seasons.

With Leicester City’s period in administration a recent memory, Levein's vision was to develop players through the Academy, reduce the age of the squad, sign younger players on long term contracts, have players living locally, and ensure financial prudence.

 

He soon signed Alan Maybury, Mark de Vreis and, later, Patrick Kisnorbo from his old club, but by New Year 2005, the team was struggling in 15th position in the Championship.

However, Leicester did reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, before succumbing to Premier League Blackburn Rovers.

The 2005/06 season started badly with a 4-1 defeat at Sheffield United. David Connelly, meanwhile, was transferred to Wigan Athletic on the August transfer deadline day, just after 15 year-old Ashley Chambers had become the Club’s youngest-ever player.

Six successive league defeats between mid-December and the end of January left Leicester City in 22nd-place in the Championship table, although amazingly, after the third of these defeats, Tottenham Hotspur were defeated 3-2 in the FA Cup after they had taken a two goal lead.

 

Despite the signing of Matty Fryatt, in late January, Levein was sacked following the sixth defeat in succession at Plymouth. Kelly, his assistant, was appointed caretaker manager, assisted by Mike Stowell, and the Club was able to stave off relegation.

After a brief period managing Raith Rovers, Levein became Dundee United’s manager in October 2006, additionally becoming, director of football in 2008.

Levein left Tannadice Park in December 2009 for a three-year spell as Scotland’s national team manager, but failure to qualify for the 2012 UEFA Euros and a lack of success in qualifying games for the 2014 FIFA World Cup resulted in him leaving the post in November 2012.

Eighteen months later, Levein returned to Hearts as director of football, a post he still holds, together with the post of manager, to which he was appointed in August 2017.

 

https://www.lcfc.com/news/1153964/the-managers-craig-levein-20042006

Dark times. We've come a long way and are a completely different club to the one who used to have their best players poached by the likes of Wigan and lost regularly to Plymouth.

[Guest Papasmurf]

I met him in the shop under the flats on the corner of Filbert Street. Big bloke. He'd just got back from an away game and was buying a 4 pack of Guiness. He was still fuming about a red card.

 

[Koke]

My abiding memory is losing to Plynouth (home and away), Stephen Hughes and Andy Johnson midfield partnership, Momo Sylla, Josh Low. 

 

Did Levein sign Gareth McAuley? If so, certainly his best signing at LCFC. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

A golden age of bigging up new signings that I think we all knew weren't up to much, although in fairness when Levein said he considered himself 'lucky' to be able to sign Stephen Hughes and Mark De Vries, he was probably right given the perilous financial position of the club at the time.

 

I will always fondly remember the contemporary graffiti on the side of that shop on Granby Street near Blunts' Shoes:

 

"De Vries De Vries De Vries is on fire

F**k off Cov Scum die die die'

[Guest]

I didn't realise it was him that replaced Adams, I had him down as being a year or two later. Those 2004-2008 years have basically merged together in my mind into one dull, shit mass.

[peach0000]

16 minutes ago, Koke said:

My abiding memory is losing to Plynouth (home and away), Stephen Hughes and Andy Johnson midfield partnership, Momo Sylla, Josh Low. 

 

Did Levein sign Gareth McAuley? If so, certainly his best signing at LCFC. 

Surely his best signing was Fryatt

[Koke]

4 minutes ago, peach0000 said:

Surely his best signing was Fryatt

 

Probably. Although McAuley had a much more successful career.

[melrose]

I liked the part where he had to retire in 1987 because of a knee injury, but he still managed to play for Scotland for a few years after, including playing in Italia 90

[CosbehFox]

Was a difficult scenario for him. His eye for a player was awful. 

[CosbehFox]

38 minutes ago, Koke said:

My abiding memory is losing to Plynouth (home and away), Stephen Hughes and Andy Johnson midfield partnership, Momo Sylla, Josh Low. 

 

Did Levein sign Gareth McAuley? If so, certainly his best signing at LCFC. 

No McAuley came on a free in the Summer Kelly was here. Johnson and Low were not Levein signings too. 

 

Cant blame you though it does all blur into ****ing crap 

[Saxondale]

We were skint, so we can't blame Levein entirely. It was a very depressing period.

 

Kisnorbo was good.

[murphy]

Now that was dismal. 

 

Compared to Levein, Puel's football was like the Harlem Globetrotters.

 

[Tuna]

Talked a good game but ultimately was a very poor appointment for us, some of his signings were beyond description. Anyone remember Peter Gilbert? 

 

The Plymouth game that got him sacked I think the bench had about 5 strikers on it in a game he needed to win.

 

Hilarious that he went on to manage Scotland and got sacked after playing a 4-6-0 formation against the Czech Republic again in a must win game.

 

[Soar Fox]

Kisnorbo was steady once he had moved from midfield into defence.

[Guy]

Blummin' Nora! What a totally forgettable era for the club - it really couldn't be any different now compared to back then! I'd totally forgotten about players like David Connolly!

 

The only good thing you could say about the Levein era was that we didn't go down to League One throughout his tenure (although we would do just two years later of course) and our memorable FA Cup victory over Spurs with what was a very poor quality Championship side when all's told but who somehow matched Spurs for that one game! All pointed the way to an even worse period to follow of course until Messiah Pearson came along in 2008-09 to sort it all out - to which we've never since looked back of course!

 

I was at Levein's final game away at Plymouth, having recently moved down to there at the time - and our performance in that rearranged game told us what was likely to happen the following day...... 

 

 

 

[Tuna]

Didn't a defeat at Plymouth get Rob Kelly the sack as well?

[StriderHiryu]

Some of the darkest times as a supporter, it was very hard to be enthusiastic about the club during this period. A pretty middling manager but he had a very difficult situation to deal with.

[CosbehFox]

19 minutes ago, Tuna said:

Didn't a defeat at Plymouth get Rob Kelly the sack as well?

Yeah 

[Koke]

1 hour ago, Tuna said:

Didn't a defeat at Plymouth get Rob Kelly the sack as well?

 

Yes. It was funny how we regularly lost to Plymouth. I wonder what Peter Halmosi is up to these days.

[Manwell Pablo]

15 minutes ago, Koke said:

 

Yes. It was funny how we regularly lost to Plymouth. I wonder what Peter Halmosi is up to these days.

 

Believe it or not still playing, in Hungary.

 

Awful period. It is hard to lay it all at Leveins door as he had a budget of £2.50 but yeah, just dire. 

 

[Corky]

Bottom half Championship dross for 15 months. Two excellent Cup results against Charlton and Tottenham but the league performances, barring his first match v Coventry and the 4-2 win over Sheffield United, were generally mediocre. He won TWO away matches in his reign as well.

 

Left us in the bottom three in the Championship which is a sackable offence. 2004-2008 were truly dire and a black mark on the past 25 years.