Hearts boss Craig Levein dreams of all academy graduates in first team

Craig Levein has a dream. He can imagine a time when Anthony McDonald, Connor Smith, Aaron Hickey, Harry Cochrane and Andy Irving are all playing in the Hearts first team together.

Hearts' Aaron Hickey during the first Betfred Cup group game against Dundee United. Picture: Paul Devlin/SNS

It will not be tonight, when Hearts host Stenhousemuir in a Betfred Cup tie, nor any time soon. They will all continue to break into the side at their own pace. Throwing the youths in all together, as some Hearts supporters might wish, would be foolhardy.

A clash with a side relegated into League 2 last season is a more tempting environment than a Premiership fixture in which to continue blooding young talent, admittedly – although Levein has already proved himself willing to do so at a Scottish Cup final, no less.

Hickey started last season’s defeat to Celtic when only 16 and looks set to return this evening. McDonald is also expected to start Hearts’ third group game. Levein stressed he is planning on a time when “four or five” members of the first XI are graduates of the club’s academy.

The manager is confident the future of the club lies with these youngsters for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is financial. At a time of inflated salaries, the onus is on Hearts and other similarly sized clubs to produce their own talent. An additional bonus is being able to school these home-reared players in a particular style of football.

Levein isn’t deaf to the grumbles about Hearts’ style of play last season. He realises the fans are crying out for something more and he’s confident they will get it, in time. The likes of McDonald, Hickey, Cochrane and co are being taught to play a possession-based game. It’s why it felt like such a breath of fresh air when Cochrane, for example, came in to play against Hibs at the end of last season along with Smith and with criticism about Hearts’ agricultural style at its height.

“My job is to win so I just try to win at the moment,” said Levein. “I’m hoping that as more and more of the young ones come in to the team we’ll win more often and in a better style, or whatever you want to call it.

“For us to punch above our weight and if we can’t afford to buy good players or pay the salaries they get when they’re 24 or 25, then the only other way to get good players is to produce our own. It’s been a long time coming, five years now.”

Levein believes fans’ patience is set to be rewarded. Just not quite yet. “You can’t always guarantee it but the intention is to have maybe 50 per cent, four or five players of the match day team made up of them,” he said.

Oliver Bozanic is trying to strike a delicate balance – help these youngsters the way he’d like to have been helped at their age but not to the extent where they steal his place in the team. Now 30, the Australian midfielder is at the other end of his career and is keen to make the most of the years he has left.

“I like to help the young guys any way I can,” he said. “As you get older you try to help them develop. The boys are doing well, but it takes time to adapt to first-team football and have that consistency.

“It is about the older boys helping them through the transition stage of their career. The young lads are good but I know they are trying to take my place in the team as well. But we have all been in their position. I just focus on what I have to do to perform at my best and get in the team.”

Bozanic started last week’s win over Cowndenbeath but has struggled to cement a starting place for himself. He watched compatriot Ryan Edwards come in from nowhere to seal a berth in last season’s Scottish Cup final side – he himself tasted the last nine minutes as substitute – so he knows how circumstances can change, and then change again.

Edwards is now on his way to Burton Albion. Bozanic, meanwhile, is desperate to help Hearts back to a final, with the Betfred Cup offering an opportunity to reach another one before the year’s out.

“We were so close [last time] and we would love to go all the way this time,” he said. “The build-up and things were great, walking out into packed stadium was amazing. I will always remember that feeling. When you get a taste of a final you want more of it.”