Craig Levein profile

Craig Levein started his senior playing career with his hometown club Cowdenbeath where he had signed from Lochore Welfare in 1981.

After a string of brilliant performances for the club, he soon attracted the attention of the bigger clubs, and in 1983 he moved to Heart of Midlothian of the Scottish Premier League, Hearts had to pay a fee of £40,000 to land the defender.

Levein soon established himself as a first team regular at Hearts and was appointed captain. He even found himself called up for the Scottish international team.

He made his debut for Scotland in 1990 in a 1-0 victory over Argentina at Hampden, his performance landed him a place in the Scotland 1990 World Cup squad.

Levein stayed at Hearts for the rest of his career but his career was interrupted by two serious knee ligament injuries. He finally retired in 1995.

Many people will remember his infamous bust up with team mate Graeme Hogg in a pre-season friendly with Raith Rovers. Levein was given a twelve match ban for punching Hogg on the nose and breaking it.

His managerial career started at Cowdenbeath, the side where his senior career had started all those years ago. He had held coaching positions at Hearts and Livingston before going into his first management position.

He turned the fortunes of the small club around and took them from strugglers to promotion in 2001. He had left earlier in the season but it was his hard work that brought the promotion.

Levein didn’t see that season through as he was again lured by Premier League Hearts. He guided the Tynecastle club to two third places in a row before being approached by Leicester City.

His time at Leicester City wasn’t successful however and he was sacked after a poor start to the 2005-06 season.

He returned to Scotland to manage Second Division Raith Rovers but it wasn’t long before he was back in the SPL and United named him as manager on October 30th 2006.