When a manager gets sacked, it’s more often than not the football law that a club leaps from one end of the ‘what does he bring’ spectrum to the other.
St Johnstone have just subscribed to it.
From rookie to round the block – Saints didn’t ease their way across the experience scale, they took the giant stride option.
Whatever your opinion of Craig Levein (and everybody has an opinion) he is a colossus of the game north of the border.
St Johnstone Football Club is delighted to announce that Craig Levein has been appointed as its new First Team Manager.
Andy Kirk will also join as Assistant Manager.
The 59-year-old joins on a contract that runs until May, 2026 at McDiarmid Park. #SJFC
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) November 5, 2023
From the blistering broadside at Mike McCurry to no strikers in the Czech Republic and the natural order in Edinburgh, say his name and there will be any number of ‘moments’ that spring to mind.
Most importantly, however, he has been a very effective manager.
There was Hearts the first time, when European football was secured on the back of third-placed finishes in successive seasons and he was the first Tynecastle boss to achieve that since the 1960s.
A spell in England with Leicester City wasn’t great but Dundee United fans will be forever grateful for the regeneration of their club Levein set in motion – from the academy to the first team.
He’s arguably the most significant individual in United’s post-Jim McLean history.
Dissenting voices were in the minority when country came calling in 2009. Levein had earned his shot.
There weren’t many very good Scotland players in those days and manager after manager couldn’t make the national team greater than the sum of its parts.
Levein, who has recently been co-hosting BBC podcast Sacked in the Morning about life in management, fell into that line of succession.
Is the magic still there?
Life after Scotland is the territory where debate on whether the managerial magic endures is fought.
The most recent evidence – an anticlimactic return to the dugout in Gorgie – casts doubt on it.
Seasoned Levein observers would suggest that much will now depend on whether the fire to be a top-end training ground and match-day main man still burns brightly.
That he has taken on the task of leading a club which has just seen its playing budget slashed, and is rock bottom of the Premiership two months away from a transfer window opening, suggests in itself that it does.
So too does working for free at Brechin City over the last couple of years, picking up cones and making journeys to Deveronvale and Wick.
Saints wanted to change direction after a decade of in-house, two plus two equals four appointments.
They wanted deep knowledge of the league and a history of battling relegation in their next manager.
And they probably also wanted someone who, when there is time to broaden his focus away from the day-to-day churn of league football matches, will supplement the modernisation of the football club.
No manager comes with a points-winning guarantee.
But with Craig Levein, you can be assured it won’t be dull.
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