Fatigued and fed-up by failure at Hearts, Craig Levein hopes significant adjustment to his managerial approach will aid St Johnstone on return to the dugout following a four-year break.
Levein admits he was left ‘knackered’ and prone to error by burdening himself with too much work and responsibility in his last job, which embraced manager and director of football roles at Tynecastle.
The 59-year-old stressed that he had no wish for that sour ending to be his last effort as a manager and at no point closed the door on a frontline comeback.
He remained in football as advisor to Brechin City, while working as a media pundit and podcaster, and hankered after the right opportunity to ‘work with good people’ and ‘make a difference’.
Levein has signed a two-and-a-half-year deal in Perth and recruited his former Hearts coach Andy Kirk from Brechin to be assistant alongside established Saints first team coach Alex Cleland.
And by delegating far more duties than in any previous post in his career, Levein believes he can revive struggling St Johnstone.
He intends taking a step back to a more old-school manager mode and avoiding the mistakes that contributed to burnout at Hearts before his October 2019 dismissal.
Levein explained: “If you take into consideration what a manager has to do nowadays, I think it’s impossible to do everything, I really do.
“That’s what I learned from Hearts, one hundred percent. I found myself knackered there.
“Coming back into the Premiership and trying to do everything would be a horrendous mistake.
“I did enjoy going out on a Sunday watching Hearts U16s and all that stuff.
“But once you’ve had a game on the Saturday - away all day up to Aberdeen or in Glasgow - then on a Sunday you’re somewhere watching kids games.
“Then you start it all again on a Monday with first-team training. I had Director of Football stuff on top of it, it all just became nowhere near as enjoyable as I wanted it to be.
“I was thinking to myself: ‘This is supposed to be fun’. But I was knackered and I couldn’t deal with the situation. I was stretched too thin.
“And, when things are going wrong, pressure builds. So I always thought that if I do come back in, I’d make sure I had people in place who would do a lot of the things which take up a lot of my time.
“That gives me the space to think and deal with the things I need to deal with.
“Andy will be taking the training. I’m here to manage. And I will be managing him to take training.
“I’ll stand back and watch what’s going on. Could my voice have more of an impact then? Maybe.
“But I also think Andy’s voice is really important and Alex’s voice will be really important too.”
A return to Dundee United was floated late last season without coming to fruition but Levein’s acquaintance with St Johnstone honorary president Geoff Brown helped encourage him to pick Perth for his comeback.
He was encouraged, too, by what he saw in the 2-1 victory over Kilmarnock last midweek - their first of the Premiership season - on his watching brief.
Levein’s former Hearts striker Steven MacLean was sacked after only four points from a possible 27 to start the campaign but never got the chance to field preferred strike partnership Nicky Clark and Chris Kane together.
“I do think Macca was a bit unfortunate,” noted Levein, who takes charge tonight at home to Motherwell.
“When you look at the games it wasn’t like they were getting hammered. The only really disappointing result was at St Mirren.
“I watched some of those and I’m thinking it’s little things. Then Kane comes back, Nicky Clark comes back against Kilmarnock and all of a sudden, you’ve more potency in the front line, which is going to help.
“I was pleasantly surprised. I knew the experience was here. I didn’t realise the energy that the team had was as impressive as it was.
“I feel I can make a difference. I was disappointed with the way it finished at Hearts. I didn’t want to go out on that note.
“I want to do a really good job and this is the place I’m going to try. I’d been asked loads of times if I’d go back in and I said only if I find the right thing.
“I feel this is the right thing. I wanted another shot at it. It’s still in me somewhere.”
