Levein ready to return to management

[Chairman of the Bored]

This from thetimesonline.co.uk today

Levein ready for return to management

Craig Levein defends his rocky time as Leicester manager which ended in the sack, and does not rule out a move to Dunfermline  or return to Hearts. By Simon Buckland

STILL out, but no longer down, Craig Levein’s recovery from his dismissal at Leicester is nearing completion. “I only think about it every couple of days now,†he smiles. For nine years unbroken he was a manager at Cowdenbeath, Hearts and then Leicester. The Championship club were supposed to be his route to the Premiership, but it turned out to be a wrong turn. Six straight defeats meant a drop into the relegation zone. The Leicester board panicked in January and stopped thinking long-term. Meaning in the short-term, Levein’s time is suddenly his own.

Last Thursday morning in a Fife hotel he spent a bit of it explaining what he might do next. The offer to pay for the coffee was declined. “Things aren’t that bad,†he quipped. He is under no immediate financial pressure to work again, but the “frustration and anger†at what happened at Leicester have subsided enough for him to consider himself ready for re-employment. “In my head, it’s time to get back,†he says. The vacancy at Livingston came too early to interest him. More recently, he has declined invitations to apply for jobs in Greece and Spain because his preference is Britain: he wants to be where people can see what he is doing. Where that will be, he doesn’t know. Dunfermline and Hearts are only two possibilities. “When you’re not working, you don’t rule anything out. You can’t say, ‘I wouldn’t do that’.â€Â

If he had his choice, he would still be at Leicester. He believes he had done the difficult bit. As Levein bluntly puts it, “all the s***â€Â. The wage bill had been slashed by £5m, a new group of young players blooded among the cuts, and the enjoyment of seeing his team evolve was about to commence. He was, he maintains, probably only one or two results away, but he never got them. Instead, Rob Kelly, a member of Levein’s backroom staff who became caretaker, has taken the credit, so much so he has now been confirmed as his permanent replacement. Earlier this month, Levein was watching a Sky-televised Leicester victory against Crystal Palace and got the feeling the co-commentator, Garry Birtles, was talking to him through the screen.

“Maybe you’re listening out for it, but the first 20 minutes especially was bad,†says Levein. “He was talking about how, with a new manager, ‘Everyone is coming into training with a smile on their face now’, but that’s the one thing everyone had constantly when I was there. It makes me out to be some kind of ogre. Garry had no idea what the mood was like before, it’s just the easiest thing to say, but what can you do? I’m not about to phone Garry and say, ‘Listen you’, all I can do is make sure, the next job I have, I get some success.â€Â

Not that Levein is unhappy to see Leicester’s upturn. He believes it demonstrates he signed the right players. “I was trying to build something and the disappointment is not having the chance to keep moving it forward. The Leicester directors were new and not football people. There was a naivety about them. They thought they were doing the right thing and no doubt they’ll be sitting there saying they’ve been proved right.â€Â

So where does this leave Levein’s reputation? It is my humble duty to help him with the answer to this one. Handed a cutting from the week of his Leicester sacking from Charlie Nicholas’s column in a tabloid newspaper, Levein reads how he was “lucky to last so long†and “didn’t know where he was going with Leicester†where his record was “atrociousâ€Â. A printing glitch means the text is garbled in one section. “You can tell Charlie wrote it himself, all the words run together,†jokes Levein. Is he concerned that Nicholas’s assessment represents a wider view? “That’s Charlie, he makes his living out of stuff like this,†counters Levein. “He wouldn’t say those things if he was sitting opposite me.â€Â

Mindful of the speculation it would prompt, Levein has avoided East End Park matches since his return north, despite it being the nearest ground to his home. He denies any contact with Dunfermline who have hinted that manager Jim Leishman may revert back to director of football during the summer. That would be no potential problem, for Levein’s first coaching job was working unpaid alongside Leishman at Livingston for a short period in 1997 before joining Cowdenbeath.

If Dunfermline remains his most likely destination, then Hearts is the most intriguing; a club he left just as Vladimir Romanov was joining.

Levein doesn’t regret not staying. He met the now Hearts owner only once and his mind was already made up to leave after what he cheerfully refers to as “four years of struggleâ€Â. His Hearts was one of financial constraints and reduced squad numbers, a sizable contrast from the apparent largesse of today. The money has added quality, but the core of the team is much as Levein left it: he signed Paul Hartley and Andy Webster, promoted Craig Gordon and, what he regards his best decision, made Steven Pressley captain. “I caught up with many of them at a golf day earlier this week and it was fascinating talking to them about the changes. When I was there it was cutback after cutback so we became heavily dependent on certain players. I take great pride from the fact, for all that’s been spent since, that they’re still heavily dependent on the same players.â€Â

If the side Levein is to take charge of next remains unclear, one thing is certain: he will manage a comeback.

[DaveyJ]

This from thetimesonline.co.uk today

Levein ready for return to management

Craig Levein defends his rocky time as Leicester manager which ended in the sack, and does not rule out a move to Dunfermline  or return to Hearts. By Simon Buckland

STILL out, but no longer down, Craig Levein’s recovery from his dismissal at Leicester is nearing completion. “I only think about it every couple of days now,†he smiles. For nine years unbroken he was a manager at Cowdenbeath, Hearts and then Leicester. The Championship club were supposed to be his route to the Premiership, but it turned out to be a wrong turn. Six straight defeats meant a drop into the relegation zone. The Leicester board panicked in January and stopped thinking long-term. Meaning in the short-term, Levein’s time is suddenly his own.

Last Thursday morning in a Fife hotel he spent a bit of it explaining what he might do next. The offer to pay for the coffee was declined. “Things aren’t that bad,†he quipped. He is under no immediate financial pressure to work again, but the “frustration and anger†at what happened at Leicester have subsided enough for him to consider himself ready for re-employment. “In my head, it’s time to get back,†he says. The vacancy at Livingston came too early to interest him. More recently, he has declined invitations to apply for jobs in Greece and Spain because his preference is Britain: he wants to be where people can see what he is doing. Where that will be, he doesn’t know. Dunfermline and Hearts are only two possibilities. “When you’re not working, you don’t rule anything out. You can’t say, ‘I wouldn’t do that’.â€Â

If he had his choice, he would still be at Leicester. He believes he had done the difficult bit. As Levein bluntly puts it, “all the s***â€Â. The wage bill had been slashed by £5m, a new group of young players blooded among the cuts, and the enjoyment of seeing his team evolve was about to commence. He was, he maintains, probably only one or two results away, but he never got them. Instead, Rob Kelly, a member of Levein’s backroom staff who became caretaker, has taken the credit, so much so he has now been confirmed as his permanent replacement. Earlier this month, Levein was watching a Sky-televised Leicester victory against Crystal Palace and got the feeling the co-commentator, Garry Birtles, was talking to him through the screen.

“Maybe you’re listening out for it, but the first 20 minutes especially was bad,†says Levein. “He was talking about how, with a new manager, ‘Everyone is coming into training with a smile on their face now’, but that’s the one thing everyone had constantly when I was there. It makes me out to be some kind of ogre. Garry had no idea what the mood was like before, it’s just the easiest thing to say, but what can you do? I’m not about to phone Garry and say, ‘Listen you’, all I can do is make sure, the next job I have, I get some success.â€Â

Not that Levein is unhappy to see Leicester’s upturn. He believes it demonstrates he signed the right players. “I was trying to build something and the disappointment is not having the chance to keep moving it forward. The Leicester directors were new and not football people. There was a naivety about them. They thought they were doing the right thing and no doubt they’ll be sitting there saying they’ve been proved right.â€Â

So where does this leave Levein’s reputation? It is my humble duty to help him with the answer to this one. Handed a cutting from the week of his Leicester sacking from Charlie Nicholas’s column in a tabloid newspaper, Levein reads how he was “lucky to last so long†and “didn’t know where he was going with Leicester†where his record was “atrociousâ€Â. A printing glitch means the text is garbled in one section. “You can tell Charlie wrote it himself, all the words run together,†jokes Levein. Is he concerned that Nicholas’s assessment represents a wider view? “That’s Charlie, he makes his living out of stuff like this,†counters Levein. “He wouldn’t say those things if he was sitting opposite me.â€Â

Mindful of the speculation it would prompt, Levein has avoided East End Park matches since his return north, despite it being the nearest ground to his home. He denies any contact with Dunfermline who have hinted that manager Jim Leishman may revert back to director of football during the summer. That would be no potential problem, for Levein’s first coaching job was working unpaid alongside Leishman at Livingston for a short period in 1997 before joining Cowdenbeath.

If Dunfermline remains his most likely destination, then Hearts is the most intriguing; a club he left just as Vladimir Romanov was joining.

Levein doesn’t regret not staying. He met the now Hearts owner only once and his mind was already made up to leave after what he cheerfully refers to as “four years of struggleâ€Â. His Hearts was one of financial constraints and reduced squad numbers, a sizable contrast from the apparent largesse of today. The money has added quality, but the core of the team is much as Levein left it: he signed Paul Hartley and Andy Webster, promoted Craig Gordon and, what he regards his best decision, made Steven Pressley captain. “I caught up with many of them at a golf day earlier this week and it was fascinating talking to them about the changes. When I was there it was cutback after cutback so we became heavily dependent on certain players. I take great pride from the fact, for all that’s been spent since, that they’re still heavily dependent on the same players.â€Â

If the side Levein is to take charge of next remains unclear, one thing is certain: he will manage a comeback.

I was in Fife last Tueasday and Wednesday

Hmm... I agree that he signed us some good players (and some crap) but he was "one or two games away" for so long, too long.

[Scow]

If he had his choice, he would still be at Leicester. He believes he had done the difficult bit. As Levein bluntly puts it, “all the s***â€Â. The wage bill had been slashed by £5m, a new group of young players blooded among the cuts, and the enjoyment of seeing his team evolve was about to commence.

First of all, he was required to reduce the wage bill accordingly.

Secondly, whilst he did bring in a good core of players, he also purchased some woeful ones too.

Under him, we were not close to any evoloution in to a successful team. 5 wins in 30 games, along with losing his last 6 suggested there was no imminent improvement.

The Leicester directors were new and not football people. There was a naivety about them. They thought they were doing the right thing and no doubt they’ll be sitting there saying they’ve been proved right.â€Â

He's obviously very bitter about the whole experience. He never seemed to accept what a dire situation we were in, constantly coming out with same tired excuses game after game. Something had to be done to reverse the decline, and yes, the board on reflection took the right decision.

Handed a cutting from the week of his Leicester sacking from Charlie Nicholas’s column in a tabloid newspaper, Levein reads how he was “lucky to last so long†and “didn’t know where he was going with Leicester†where his record was “atrociousâ€Â.

Pretty accurate summary, which again Levein can't accept.

- 13 wins out of 60 league games would give most managers the sack.

- He was always chopping and changing the team, never knowing his best starting line up.

- His record was atrocious, he can't escape that.

[Anish]

He's pretty much destroyed any good reputation that he had after what he did here. He's going to have to go back to his Scottish roots with some struggling club because I can't see any decent team looking at him now.

Nice bloke, but woefully inept at his job.

[Jamesino_LCFC]

Heres a new headline for you:

NO ONE CARES ABOUT CRAIG LEVEIN

The man has proved to the world that he knows nothing about football and that success in an awful world of football where the standard is atrocious, named the scottish premier division, has also proved that it means nothing. Craig has also proved that he is the WORST manager this football club has ever had to employ in its history, and that sacking him was a great day for everyone involved in the club.

[Chairman of the Bored]

I would suggest that Frank McClintock was the worst manager we ever had, rapidly followed by Levein, and then Pleat. Couldn't vouch for anyone before 1964 but older viewers may wish to comment?

[anotherwin]

Taylor was pretty bad, cost this club £Â£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£Ã‚£'s

[Micky Singh]

I would suggest that Frank McClintock was the worst manager we ever had, rapidly followed by Levein, and then Pleat. Couldn't vouch for anyone before 1964 but older viewers may wish to comment?

ummmmmmmm aren't u forgetting someone

the bastard of all bastards - Peter Taylor

[Jon the Hat]

The Leicester board panicked in January and stopped thinking long-term.

OR they realised they were in the shit and needed to employ someone with some Charisma to manage the team

Rob Kelly, a member of Levein’s backroom staff who became caretaker, has taken the credit, so much so he has now been confirmed as his permanent replacement.

OR Kelly deserves the credit because he actually made the same team perform well. And win games at a key time in the clubs history.

So where does this leave Levein’s reputation?

IN the shit. Big time. May he never grace the English Leagues again

If Dunfermline remains his most likely destination, then Hearts is the most intriguing;

GOOD luck son, you and Romanov deserve each other. Big time.

If the side Levein is to take charge of next remains unclear, one thing is certain: he will manage a comeback.

And we pity tge poor b*st*rds who get lumbered with him.

[Jon the Hat]

ummmmmmmm aren't u forgetting someone

the bastard of all bastards - Peter Taylor

I still think Taylor has some positive attibutes. He can coah alright. England U21 proves it. BUT oh lord never give him any money, not even to go to the bar. He'd probably come back with some milk and a few packets of Prawn Cocktail crisps.

[DaveyJ]

I still think Taylor has some positive attibutes. He can coah alright. England U21 proves it. BUT oh lord never give him any money, not even to go to the bar. He'd probably come back with some milk and a few packets of Prawn Cocktail crisps.

Or worse Cheese and Onion.

[Chairman of the Bored]

Taylor would be my 4th worst. Some positives: he took us to the top of the Prem.....er, that's about it. However, the McClintock team was sooooo bad you wouldn't believe it. Highlight of the season was getting a penalty at Wolves when we were 0-3 down and a 1-0 win at Hull in the FAC (and the 3-0 tonking of the Geordies on the last day of the season).

Levein was poor because he had the players at his disposal but simply couldn't get them to gel, played them in the wrong positions and never seemed to enjoy being in Leicester.

Pleat, well, he was too big for his own boots. The Walshie story about Pleat and Delbert (Alan Paris) summed him up. One of his training methods was to have the players stand round in a circle, throw the ball to them and then ask them a general knowledge question. He knew old Del was a bit of a plank and constantly chucked the ball at him asking more proposterous questions to make him look daft. Pleat also lost it big time on the pitch with some seriously ropey tactics. He was also like Taylor, unable to see the madness in his method. But McClintock......you had to be there.....god awful. I still have nightmares about that season.

[Jon the Hat]

Or worse Cheese and Onion.

You'll get a slap for saying foolish things like that

[Jon the Hat]

I still think Taylor has some positive attibutes. He can coah alright. England U21 proves it. BUT oh lord never give him any money, not even to go to the bar. He'd probably come back with some milk and a few packets of Prawn Cocktail crisps.

And the ability to Coah is important. As is the ability to type...

[Frenzied]

Taylor would be my 4th worst. Some positives: he took us to the top of the Prem.....er, that's about it. However, the McClintock team was sooooo bad you wouldn't believe it. Highlight of the season was getting a penalty at Wolves when we were 0-3 down and a 1-0 win at Hull in the FAC (and the 3-0 tonking of the Geordies on the last day of the season).

Levein was poor because he had the players at his disposal but simply couldn't get them to gel, played them in the wrong positions and never seemed to enjoy being in Leicester.

Pleat, well, he was too big for his own boots. The Walshie story about Pleat and Delbert (Alan Paris) summed him up. One of his training methods was to have the players stand round in a circle, throw the ball to them and then ask them a general knowledge question. He knew old Del was a bit of a plank and constantly chucked the ball at him asking more proposterous questions to make him look daft. Pleat also lost it big time on the pitch with some seriously ropey tactics. He was also like Taylor, unable to see the madness in his method. But McClintock......you had to be there.....god awful. I still have nightmares about that season.

Everyone seems to forget how bad Brian Hamilton was. He has to up there among the worst.

[Monk]

I wish CL the best in whatever he does. No matter how shit the results were he has done a lot for us. RK would not be a successful as he now is had CL not got the players in, and shipped out the oldies. We were right to sack him when we did but that shouldnt hide the good things he has done.

He has done a lot more positive things for this club than Peter Taylor. The two shouldnt even be mentioned in the same sentance. If it wasnt for Peter Taylor we wouldnt have had the need to slash the wage bill by £5m in the first place!!

[NFFC Chris]

Levein did for you what Megson did for us,they both signed good young players but unfortunately did'nt get results on the pitch,they both left good foundations though,look at our teams improvement since they have both gone.Megson had lost the players unfortunately for us and I'm guessing it was the same with Levein.

[dave_1988]

I wish CL the best in whatever he does. No matter how shit the results were he has done a lot for us. RK would not be a successful as he now is had CL not got the players in, and shipped out the oldies. We were right to sack him when we did but that shouldnt hide the good things he has done.

He has done a lot more positive things for this club than Peter Taylor. The two shouldnt even be mentioned in the same sentance. If it wasnt for Peter Taylor we wouldnt have had the need to slash the wage bill by £5m in the first place!!

I agree totally. I don't think some of us realise what a state our finances were, and still are in. What he claims about being a few games from turning it around is probably complete bullshit; the results on the pitch were simply not good enough, and this is what managers are judged on. However, we will simply never know what might have been had Craig Levein not been sacked, we could have been relegated, we could have charged up the table and into the playoffs (I highly doubt it though)!

Anyway, whats done is done, and our future looks brighter now than it did in January. We have some very talented players in our squad - its hard not to admit Levein made some very good signings on a tight budget - and now Rob Kelly is getting the performances out of them. Perhaps we should stop giving Levein so much grief as he has given us strong foundations to build upon for the future.

And the comeback against Spurs was pretty entertaining too!

[lookwhaticando]

I agree totally. I don't think some of us realise what a state our finances were, and still are in. What he claims about being a few games from turning it around is probably complete bullshit; the results on the pitch were simply not good enough, and this is what managers are judged on. However, we will simply never know what might have been had Craig Levein not been sacked, we could have been relegated, we could have charged up the table and into the playoffs (I highly doubt it though)!

Anyway, whats done is done, and our future looks brighter now than it did in January. We have some very talented players in our squad - its hard not to admit Levein made some very good signings on a tight budget - and now Rob Kelly is getting the performances out of them. Perhaps we should stop giving Levein so much grief as he has given us strong foundations to build upon for the future.

And the comeback against Spurs was pretty entertaining too!

Maybe Levein was right. Maybe the board did hit the panic button. So did many of the fans who decided we were as good as dead and buried when we sacked him so late and put his inexperienced assistant in charge. Look where we are now. Panic decision or not, it worked out really quite well.

Under Levein's last few weeks in charge, we struggled to gain even a single point against teams a few places above or below us. We had a terrible run in the league which ended when Kelly took charge. We've since won some crucial games. We've broken baron spells against certain teams (Millwall anyone?) - things we didn't often do under Levein. Hell, we've probably won more away games under Kelly than under Levein the whole time he was here.

Managers are responsible for the results on the pitch. The results dont lie. Levein failed to get the results required, and he paid the price. That's management, Craig.

Good luck managing Dunfermline, hope it works out for you.

[macbeth]

He believes he had done the difficult bit. As Levein bluntly puts it, “all the s***â€Â. The wage bill had been slashed by £5m, a new group of young players blooded among the cuts, and the enjoyment of seeing his team evolve was about to commence. He was, he maintains, probably only one or two results awayhow about the bit where he said he'd done all the hard work and kelly was now reaping the rewards

there just may be some truth in this ; maybe we were only those couple of results away / many of the best managers have these periods where swingeing cuts and massive changes in personnel take so long to settle/ only time will tell if kelly did work the magic or just happened to arrive before take-off

[Guest]

But how long can you spin out the 'couple of results' for?

I wish we'd all move onwards (and upwards?), dwelling on the ifs and buts does nothing.

[eaststandtom]

good luck to craig he did the right things apart from you know where.

constant changing of the team didnt help and surely he has himself to blame for his sacking. as someone said earlier we were 2-3 games away from a run for too long!!!

[Ric Flair]

Not read any of this thread other than the article from Levein.

My opinion still stands that I think Levein had some very good ideas and I welcomed them at this club. It embarrassed me to see the results we put together under him but i'll always thank him for signing the likes of McCarthy, Hume, Fryatt, Kisnorbo and promoting Stearman and Wesoloeski to the first team squad. He restored my faith with Leicester when I saw what he was trying to do here, but I do have to admit that I was very slow on the uptake on Levein and was far too lenient with him up until the point of no return which was christmas.

But let's not forget what players he has bought us, if Levein didn't come here I don't know how interested I would still have been as a Leicester fan. That makes me out to be some sort of cooont but i'd really got to the end of my teather under Adams with the type of players he was signing which I had no interest in and knew I couldn't build any sort of rapport with them as they'd be gone within a season. Granted, Levein nearly took us down and that would have been revolting and i'm eternally grateful to Rob Kelly who has also massively restored my faith in Leicester City and given me a little course for optimism even if it's going to be a long slog next season.

Levein may of messed up big time but he may also have started something here that could lead to us being successful if Kelly can take us to the next level. I always said that Levein's way of management here couldn't really fail because if he was sacked then atleast the club would be in better shape than it was when he took over even if the league position didn't prove it. We now have several players that can potentially be premiership players and they add a value to our club that we previously didn't have under Adams, which if we were still in this league with the same sort of players that Adams signed for us would basically mean devastation for this club. No money, no assets, no future.

All the best Craig back in sweaty land, that's your level. Thanks for changing the way of thinking at this club even if you did nearly relegate us .

[The People's Hero]

Ready to return to management?

Is he fed up with mis-management then?

Tosser.

[The Stig]

Fair enough, its still the same craig levien squad that has got all the wins, but we wouldn't have got all the wins i it wasn't for Rob Kelly, he did something that Craig Levien couldn't do. He got the players up and motivated when times were blue, he got them playing again, so Rob deserves all the credit he's getting. But good luck to Craig Levien, just don't come back here please!