CRAIG Levein had a wry smile when Ann Budge described the Hearts manager’s job as a poisoned chalice last week. No wonder. He knows better. Levein has seen what a real crisis at Tynecastle looks like.

Joining the club in 1983, he experienced the highs and lows of the Wallace Mercer era, when pie-in-the- sky links to Mario Kempes masked financial realities.

Levein lived through the boom and bust years when the old SPL raked in millions of pounds in TV revenue, only for it to dry up. He was in the hot seat during the unpopular reign of Chris Robinson as debt spiralled, before returning to the club as director of football to pick up the pieces following the disastrous descent into administration under Vladimir Romanov.

So, almost 35 years on from first walking in the door at Hearts, Levein can’t help but chuckle at the notion that eight months of mediocre results represents turmoil by comparison.

Indeed, as he took up the manager’s role for a second time, Levein reckoned he had never seen the Gorgie outfit in a more healthy position.

“This place has been the biggest rollercoaster,” he said. “I joined in 1983 so I have spent most of my adult life working at Hearts – player, coach, director, director of football and back to coach.

“Is this as healthy as I’ve seen it? Absolutely, it is. If you think back to the Wallace Mercer era, we had a signing ban because we didn’t pay Dundee United for a player, then suddenly we were going to get Mario Kempes.

“Wallace was larger than life, but the club didn’t have the money people thought they did. Then I came back during the Chris Robinson time. Everybody then started spending money, everyone was borrowing. We were about £13 million in debt thinking ‘it’s impossible to be more in debt than that’ ... then Mr Romanov arrived!

“So, without a doubt, under Ann’s stewardship, the place is well run, and a lot of money has been invested in infrastructure around the stadium. On top of that, we have put more than £1 million into youth development.

“There are a lot of good people in place, so perhaps that has got me to the point where I’m thinking, instead of being behind the scenes, ‘I could do something else’.”

Levein has penned a three-year deal as he returns to management for the first time since being dismissed as Scotland manager in 2012. He fought off competition from Paul Hartley, Steven Pressley and Jon Daly to land the Hearts job. The latter impressed on the training ground and in front of the media in his four weeks in interim charge and Levein was effusive in his praise for the Irishman. Levein is coy on whether he would have appointed Daly if he had been in sole charge of the recruitment process – as he effectively was when it came to finding Robbie Neilson’s successor – and revealed Budge demanded an experienced hand on the tiller following the Ian Cathro debacle.

Levein said: “Ann made it very clear that she felt it would be exceedingly difficult for a young coach to come in and deal with all of the challenges we have, which is logical and I can’t disagree with. Jon was brilliant for us, he really was. When we sat down and explained the situation, that was one of the things he asked, ‘If I had beaten Motherwell, would I have got the job?’, and Ann was categorical in saying no. The circumstances weren’t ideal for Jon and it’s a hard job for your first job.”

Levein, conversely, has experience in spades, stepping back into the Hearts dugout after managing the club in impressive fashion between 2000 and 2004. Prior to leaving for Leicester, his achievements included leading the club to European qualification in successive campaigns – the first time that had been done since the 1960s.

Indeed, one of those Uefa Cup fixtures was a 3-1 win over Braga in September 2004 at Murrayfield. So there will be even more of a feeling of deja vu when his second stint in charge begins at the home of Scottish rugby against Aberdeen on Saturday.

“I’m still thinking of it as an away venue, if I’m honest,” Levein said. “I think we are going to have to play a certain style of football while we are away from Tynecastle. I will make no apologies for that. We need to be difficult to beat over the next amount of games we have before we return to our own stadium.”