Craig Levein Definative Post

[Darth Fox]

I know this was from a few days ago but I feel this fella really hit the nail on the head in regards to Craig Levein. I realise some of you will have read this already but try not to sl@g me. I just feel this is a very good post and may give us an idea to our fate. SEE BELOW.

Season ticket at Hearts for 25 years.

Levein - where do I start!! Big hero of mine as a player however, as a man and a Manager he just is not my cup of tea!

When he was at Hearts much was made of the two 3rd places in the SPL inspite of wage cutbacks however, what many forget is that he still had the biggest wage budget in the SPL outwith the Old Firm during his time at Tynecastle. Another factor was that Aberdeen and Hibs were in a total shambles and basically we had no competition for these much lauded 3rd places!

He has a totally negative outlook and sets out his teams not to get beat, HOME and away. We had smaller teams come to our place who should have been cannon fodder - instead CL would have one man up and allow the other team to get the initative. It was only when we went a goal down that he would throw men forward - sometimes too late.

Nothing was ever his fault. The fans came in for stick for not supporting the team however his tactics were so mind numbingly boring that the atmosphere was totally flat - sound familiar?

We had some real quality yougsters however, as with a lot of talented kids some had a bit of the rebel in them. Instead of encouraging them to get on the straight and narrow they were ignored and given the bullet - the bottom line is that CL drained us of the talent to develop. He played his "yes sir - no sir" favourites like Hamill and Kisnorbo week after week after week. Frankly the more the fans complained the more his arrogance kicked in - he picked the team - he was right - you lot can sod off!

Inspite of the dire football, results count and the Scottish football pundits, who actually never went along to Hearts matches, started building up the myth that CL was a quality Manager. By the time he left we were on the slide, down to 5th in the SPL as the other teams were starting to get their act together - he saw the writing was on the wall and LCFC were his escape route!

I'm really sorry that LCFC are in their current position however, with CL at the helm this regretfully comes as no surprise.

[Solihullfox]

Blimey, the written word from someone we don't know -- must be true.

[theboywillmott]

Never a truer word spoken

[Ric Flair]

I don't think he does hit the nail on the head at all other than the fact that he doesn't rate him as a manager. I agree that Levein has messed up big time at Leicester because with the squad of players he's put togetehr there should be no excuses in achieving atleast a top half position.

The Hearts fan talks about his negative tactics and the fact he rather has hard workers in the team than talented players is bollocks here. He might have played 4-5-1 alot at Hearts and not sign any strikers but not here. We've only ever played 4-5-1 about half a dozen times in 15 months, all against premiership clubs or high flying championship clubs and all away from home. 2 games we've won, 1 drew and the others 3 or 4 lost. Not great but considering our dreadful away form anyway that isn't a bad ratio.

The myth Levein prefers hardworkers isn't necessarily true either, if that was the case why does Momo Sylla always play, the same with Gareth Williams and Ryan Smith. Hardly what you'd call hard battlers. Levein has signed 4 strikers and a top class winger since he's been here, something he never did at Hearts. So again how you can say you relate with what the Hearts chap has said is beyond me.

We also don't play dire football, the majority of our play is nice to watch with no end product. I suppose it could be seen as dire as it isn't getting us results but from what i've heard from Hearts fans it was the complete opposite up there. Disgusting football that got points on the board.

Explain to me how that post struck a cord with you?

[Aberdeen_fox]

True. Whenever I saw Hearts under Levein playing Aberdeen at Pittodrie they were always difficult to break down and quite dull to watch. And when they went 1-0 up one time they had like everyone behind the ball, holding out for that result with like the whole second half to go. Also, the old farm were streets ahead of everyone at that time and like the guy said, Aberdeen, Hibs and Dundee Utd who are the potential challangers for 3rd place were a shambles at the time so Levein couldn't really do any worse than 3rd in the SPL at that time.

[Darth Fox]

Explain to me how that post struck a cord with you?

Not all of it did, maybe I should've editted it a wee bit. I meant his trying to stop the other team from beating Leicester philophosy rather than battering the weaker opponent. The amount of low scoring Narrow defeats against poor opposition we have had and Hearts also under his command as well as 1-1 draws after trying to hold off if they did take the lead. My other halfs family are all Hearts fans and I used to take great pleasure when Levein was boss the amount of times they would lose 1-0 or let in a goal from a poor team late on.

[Ric Flair]

Explain to me how that post struck a cord with you?

Not all of it did, maybe I should've editted it a wee bit. I meant his trying to stop the other team from beating Leicester philophosy rather than battering the weaker opponent. The amount of low scoring Narrow defeats against poor opposition we have had and Hearts also under his command as well as 1-1 draws after trying to hold off if they did take the lead. My other halfs family are all Hearts fans and I used to take great pleasure when Levein was boss the amount of times they would lose 1-0 or let in a goal from a poor team late on.

Again, does Levein try and do that here though? I know we do throw atlot of results away but I think that's down to the fact that we are playing crap, nothing else. We've seen what the team is capable of against the likes of Sheffield United, Stoke and Spurs. Levein has gone on record to say that it's different in this league and with the players he's got that the team needs to batter defences and keep at it instead of keeping it tight and nicking the odd goal. The problem is the team can do neither on a regular basis all because it's evident the manager has zero ability to motivate the current set of players of which 90% of them he signed himself!

I'm not sure whether Levein is a good manager or not, he might just be flogging a dead horse here but i'm confident that the current batch of players should be challenging for a top 6 place easily and I expect a manager to be able to get the best out of what can only be described as a fairly talented team with some excellent youngsters.

[ithuriel]

I still think Darth and Palpatine should be our management team.

Imagine them in the dressing room.

Darth," you will win this match,"the force is strong on weak minds

Kisnorbet," you will win this match."

Palpatine," yes , very good lord Vader.Williams, you lack faith!"

Williams feel's invisible fingers tense around his throat

[Darth Fox]

I still think Darth and Palpatine should be our management team.

Imagine them in the dressing room.

Darth," you will win this match,"the force is strong on weak minds

Kisnorbet," you will win this match."

Palpatine," yes , very good lord Vader.Williams, you lack faith!"

Williams feel's invisible fingers tense around his throat

Yes, but sadly not possible! Bring back the black away strip, we used to do okay wearing that we could wear it home and away like Dark Lords of The Sith.