Ian Cathro laughs off '˜hysteria' over Craig Levein's input

Hearts head coach Ian Cathro was forced to field questions about Craig Levein's influence on first-team matters in the wake of the club's 2-0 defeat by Aberdeen yesterday.
Ian Cathro said: One of the positive things is there is a lot of people engagedIan Cathro said: One of the positive things is there is a lot of people engaged
Ian Cathro said: One of the positive things is there is a lot of people engaged

During the match, which the hosts won through goals from Shay Logan and Jonny Hayes, director of football Levein was seen speaking to Jon Daly in the stand before the youth coach made his way down to the Tynecastle bench.

This led to speculation that Levein was issuing instructions to Cathro.

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When asked about Levein’s input, Cathro laughed at the “hysteria” around the story. However, he chose not to refer to Levein in his response.

“One of the positive things is there is a lot of people engaged,” Cathro said. “We have good coaches. I involve them in our work during the week. We have good staff with the under-20s and Jon Daly and Andy Kirk and Liam Fox.

“We work together. I have always worked in a situation where we have one member of our technical staff in the stand who understands the gameplan. So that person has the responsibility to keep the dialogue active on certain things.

“Now, I can’t discuss too many positive things right now, but if we are talking generally about this to try and stop some sort of directed hysteria it’s entirely normal that we work together.”

When asked why Levein had entered the dressing room at half-time, Cathro suggested that he as head coach had full authority.

“Trust me, if you were in my changing room you wouldn’t be opening your mouth,” he said.