Craig Levein says interference conspiracies '˜didn't make sense'

Craig Levein has once again dismissed any notion that he was interfering in first-team matters while the club's director of football.

Craig Levein says he was only there to offer advice to the likes of Ian Cathro, right. Picture: SNS

The new Hearts boss, who was confirmed as the successor to Ian Cathro on Monday, says he was always there to lend a supporting hand to the head coach and it “doesn’t make sense” for him to have been playing the role of puppet master all along.

The 52-year-old became the club’s director of football in 2014 and was instrumental in bringing Robbie Neilson and Cathro, two rookie head coaches, to Tynecastle.

Levein has always stated his role has been to offer advice to the young managers, who themselves confirmed they had final say on matters involving the first-team, including picking the starting XI and tactics.

Despite this, criticism has continued to rage at Levein from supporters and members of the media, who question his role and whether he was truly hands-off in his approach.

He insists there would be no point in hiring the likes of Neilson and Cathro for the position of head coach if he was going to tell them what to do all along.

He told the Evening News: “There are many people who misunderstand the role of a director of football. It’s a supporting role, it is not a question of me saying ‘do this, do that’.

“I’ve tried to explain this. If I was doing that, then I’d never find out if the coach is any good. If I’m telling him, ‘you’ve got to do this’ and ‘you’ve got to do that’ then you don’t find out. Nobody knows if he is going to be a good coach until he is in the position and making decisions.

“They have to make their own decisions. Yes, Robbie came to me loads of times and asked my advice, and so did Ian, but my role was never to tell anybody what to do. What would be the point? It doesn’t make sense.”