At Cowdenbeath and then Hearts, his two previous managerial jobs, Levein was charged with reducing the wage bill, easing out older, more experienced players to make way for younger, hungrier alternatives, and ultimately taking the club forward. On both occasions, the first two seasons brought upheaval, indifferent results and vocal rebukes from supporters; success then followed at both. Each job has mirrored the last, in context, approach and outcome. After 15 months at Leicester, he could be forgiven for feeling as though he is stuck in a cycle of fate, where only the surroundings change but the circumstances are as rigid and set as a doctrine. Yet the familiarity breeds a confidence; he has developed a surety in himself so that, at what he admits is the gravest time in his managerial career, he can rely upon his methods like a faithful friend.
“A year and a bit down the line with Hearts, I was getting slaughtered, and at Cowdenbeath,” he says with a conviction that comes across as though it also offers some relief. “In all three jobs, there’s been no money to spend, we’ve been starting again to try to build something. What’s different is that previously we got what we deserved. At Hearts, if we played well, we won, and if we played poorly, we lost; here, we’ re playing well and not winning, which makes it even more frustrating.”
He needs self-possession, because the doubts of others have begun to assert themselves. During the festive period, a minority of supporters chanted “Levein out” after defeats by Norwich and Crystal Palace, while the letters page of the Leicester Mercury’s sports section on Friday contained several scathing reprovals. There will always be fans who look upon their team with skewed expectations, particularly a side that finished in the Premiership’s top 10 in four consecutive seasons under Martin O’Neill, but the truth for a club that endured administration two years ago is that finances are dictating a new era.
“Nobody likes to be in a position where you get criticised,” Levein says. “I got it at Hearts and, whatever anybody says, it’s nowhere near as bad as it was at Cowdenbeath. When you’re watching a game, you’re focusing on the match and I very rarely hear anything that’s said. But at Cowdenbeath, where there are 200 people and you can hear a pin drop, and there’s one guy standing just across from you and absolutely slaughtering you, leaving you without a name and it’s personal, that’s a worse feeling. That taught me a lot. My job is to please supporters, but not appease them. We’ve got a way that we’re heading and this is the way the club’s going now.”
As he sits in his office, perched on a battered old blue sofa and sipping a cup of coffee, the 41-year-old has changed little in his time away from Scotland. His gaze is still hard, he retains an authority that is restrained but also more potent for it. There is a certainty to his beliefs, but also to his self-awareness. When discussing Leicester’s season, a campaign that before yesterday had brought only five wins yet has veered from an emphatic 4-2 victory over Sheffield United, the second-place team, to draws against Millwall and Crewe, the bottom two sides, Levein has statistics of his own to pore over.
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No side has had more shots on target than Leicester; or hit the woodwork more times; only two teams have had more shots off target. He also notes that their goals-against amount is “mid-table”. The resonant figure, though, is the number scored: 28, a total only three sides cannot better. As we speak their top scorer is Mark de Vries, with nine, and it is indicative of the club’s philosophy under Levein that they have attempted to address this shortcoming by signing Matty Fryatt, a 19-year-old forward, from Walsall. Yet the transfer is more broadly relevant, too, for it also confirms that the Leicester board retain their faith in the manager.
“They’re nervous, as you could imagine,” Levein says of the directors. “But I got the job because they realised they couldn’t keep paying the kind of wages they were paying last season. The wage bill’s come down by something like £4.5m, a massive amount for any club. When you’re at an interview, you don’t say, ‘Well, you’ve got to be prepared, we might struggle’. It’s not a massive surprise. From my point of view, it’s not something I’m losing sleep over.”
Having brought seven players from Scotland, including Rab Douglas, Momo Sylla and Stephen Hughes (whose vibrant performances last season enthralled supporters), Levein is conscious of signing more from north of the border while the team struggle. “If you’re winning matches, nobody bothers,” he shrugs. “But if I go through them individually, they’ve done reasonably well.”
The challenge, though, is to emerge from this spell of thorns without being scarred. The FA Cup provided a form of inspiration last season, when Leicester reached the quarter-final, and having defeated Tottenham in the last round, they face Southampton on Saturday. The tie pitches Levein against George Burley, a manager who had his own dramatic spell at Tynecastle earlier this season, and the prospect brings a broad smile to Levein’s face, softening the planes of his serious features.
“It’s some club, honestly,” he says, chuckling, of Hearts. “When I got out of there, I’d had enough. Not with the club or the fans or the players, because I loved the place and I still do, but there’s only so much you can take. It was a circus and they’ve built another big top since I left. But I think George leaving was right, and I know that sounds silly, but if the owner and the manager don’t get on, it just doesn’ t work.”
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The two men can share tales, but it will prove only a passing distraction for Levein. He must make more cuts to his squad in the summer, but envisages signing only two or three players, rather than the 14 that arrived in 2005. And, as a man with unfailing self-confidence. he faces the future with nothing but optimism and assurance.
“I’m happy with the long-term prospects,” he says. “The problem is that we’ve hit a stumbling block, but if we get over it I’m excited about what we’ve got here. If I thought we were going up a dead end, I’d turn round. It’s the hardest period I’ve gone through, but if we’d been rubbish every week, I’d be away by now. What’s bought me some time is that we’ve been playing well.”
At the doorway to the training ground, a girl clutches a copy of the local paper and doodles with a black maker over the back page picture of Levein. His familiar face becomes lost under the scrawls. His own identity, his bullishness and his nerve, is far more resilient.