Locke's lucky break

THERE HAS been a rictus grin at Riccarton these past two weeks. It shouldn't take Holmesian powers of deduction to work out that the sporter of the permanent smile at Hearts' training centre has been Gary Locke. He began the year a six-months-out-of-work former Kilmarnock reserve coach, who was to be found pressing the flesh in the hospitality suites at his beloved Tynecastle on home matchdays.

Now, Locke is first-team coach, working the flesh and muscle of the players who must perform at a Gorgie arena that was his workplace for almost a decade.

Locke always hoped that one day his managerial mentor, Jim Jefferies, and assistant Billy Brown would find themselves back at the club they cherish. He knew if that happened, he would follow. It was Jefferies who gave Locke his first-team debut with the Edinburgh side in 1996. When Jefferies left for Bradford, Locke joined him two months later. Jefferies became Kilmarnock manager towards the end of the 2001-2 season. Locke had linked up with him again in time for the start of the next campaign. And Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston's decision to withdraw a coaching contract offer for Locke that Jefferies pushed for last summer proved the catalyst for the breakdown in relations between the pair that resulted in Jefferies' exit from Rugby Park in December.

So Locke is, in part, responsible for Jefferies being perfectly placed to instantly fill the vacancy created by Csaba Laszlo's departure. In turn, he has received a stonking reward with his new post. It is what he calls, "the greatest break I could ever have asked for; coming back to Hearts".

Locke says: "It's where I've always wanted to be. As a young lad my dream was to play for them, and when I started having injury problems with my knee later in my career, I was starting to think ahead to the day I stopped playing. I was determined to be a coach, and to be here at 34 years of age, it's a lucky break. I'm delighted."

Locke enjoyed "wandering around the (Tynecastle] suites", "speaking to people and shaking hands". But for someone then only able to keep himself ticking over by doing community coaching, even that began to wear thin.

"The thing I heard more than anything else when I was doing that was people telling me not to worry, that my time would come. But the longer you're out the game, the more you start worrying about whether that's true."

His break came with the phonecall offering Jefferies a second spell at Tynecastle. "I kept in touch with Jim and Billy even when I was out because they're two of the best in the business and I learned a lot from them. I've worked with them for a long time so even if I didn't have a job, they're people I would have wanted to keep in touch with anyway."

Locke isn't keen on raking over the ructions at Rugby Park centring around his supposed cost-cutting departure, some reports claiming the players were prepared to strike over Locke's loss. He gives enough away to suggest Jefferies was guilt-tripped by the episode, but little about how he feels over the personal slight that was Kilmarnock successor Jimmy Calderwood being allowed to appoint a third coach in Sandy Clark.

"Jim probably feels bad about what happened about Killie. I know he tried his best for me. He couldn't have done more," Locke says. "It was pleasing the players were desperate for me to stay, which was a nice touch. I wish them all the best, because I've got friends there. It was difficult, I'm not going to lie about that. I thought it was my first foot on the ladder, to be involved full-time as a coach."

One day, Locke would like to be Hearts manager. The way that owner Vladimir Romanov works, he could be in that position by April. Locke won't express any thoughts on the rapid turnover of trackside personnel during the Lithuanian banker's five years. "What's happened with the coaching staff over the years is in the past," he says. "All I know is that it's the same now as when I left."

Nothing else is. The facilities are much better, the squad suddenly much younger, and JJ and BB much older. Which is where Locke, with his A and B licences and two years' coaching experience, comes in

"Jim wants me to help Billy on the coaching field but also to be a link with the players, if they're unhappy about anything. I can be a middle man. I had to end my career earlier than I would have liked because of my knee. But it means I'm not too much older than some of the boys in the team. I was in their boots once, a young player getting an opportunity here, so I'm telling them the same thing – that if they do well, the manager believes in you because you're good enough, not because of what age you are."

And if they do really well, their associations with the manager could last a footballing lifetime.