Hearts have had a good season but it's still one of what-ifs for Craig Levein

They reached the last four of the League Cup, won at Easter Road for the first time in many years, have beaten Celtic, Aberdeen a couple of times and crowds have been up as well.

So, why has this season left Craig Levein feeling like a contestant on Bullseye whose dart throwing let him down right when the drumming began which meant missing out on a speedboat?

Look what you could have won, Craig, if only you’d had some better luck.

Someone worked out recently that if you added up all the time individual players have spent in the Tynecastle treatment room this season alone, it would be close to three years in total. That’s a lot of bandages.

Levein was not a happy man as he rather shuffled his way into the media room at Ibrox after his side’s 3-0 defeat when he admitted his team’s over-reliance on Uche Ikpeazu who will be back to face Hibernian on Saturday afternoon.

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Hearts were dreadful against Rangers. There are a few reasons for this, one of them being that Levein has been robbed of the opportunity to have consistency in team selection.

He’s been forced to chop and change way too much and, not unimportant, his best players such as captain Christophe Berra, Steven Naismith, John Souttar and Ikpeazu have all been missing at some point – indeed there was a period all four were out.

And then there is David Vanecek. Do you remember him?

A January signing from FK Teplice, the Czech striker arrived with a good reputation and, alas, a body that was not equipped for football. The 28-year-old wasn’t even stripped for Wednesday night. He hasn’t been named in the match-day squad in three of the last four games.

The story goes that he went on holiday to Thailand in December ahead of his move to Edinburgh and enjoyed himself a bit too much, which is unacceptable and is hardly the fault of the manager’s.

It’s been a strange season. Hearts have still shown good form and their league position, fifth, with six games remaining – plus the potential of a cup final – is more a than decent return.

But football is full of what ifs such as, what if Vanecek, who is a good player, had reported for duty fighting fit, which is the least any club can expect from a new signing.

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Levein believes it will be next season when the Czech is able to show his best form. Speaking to the Edinburgh Evening News, the Hearts manager said: “As I’ve explained, he didn’t turn up in great shape. He hasn’t been able to impress in training because things haven’t gone particularly well for him.

“I think he needs a fresh start. I think he needs to get away for the summer, make sure he works hard and comes back in good shape and then he will be able to compete with the rest of the players.

“He has hasn’t done particularly well from the opportunities he’s had. He is doing better in training but I don’t feel he’s at the level he needs to be at .”

Hearts are a point above Hibs who travel across the capital tomorrow and the hope will be there are more goals and less off the field incidents, one of which involved Hearts goalkeeper Zdenek Zlamal, compared to the first derby at Tynecastle.

A court case is pending.

What can be said is that Zlamal will have to ignore anything being shouted at him by the away fans to ensure his team make it successive derby wins.

He said: “I don’t care about the fans or the pressure from the stands. We’ll just focus on ourselves on the field. I always do my job, I don’t care about fans behind me. I am sure it will be tough and they will be shouting loudly at me.

“But you have to stay calm and concentrate on the football. They can shout what they like, I can just say I don’t understand English!

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“Uche will be back and he is very important for us and hopefully he will be back to help us this weekend.

“Hopefully we will be much better against Hibs than we were against Rangers.

“.hat game wasn’t very good from us and it was tough losing two early goals. We didn’t have much confidence from the start losing the early goal.”

Levein, meanwhile, admits he is keen to have another look at Ghanaian teenager Cletus Nombil in training after being impressed by the midfielder during last month’s week-long trial.

Nombil currently plays in his homeland for Dreams FC and has also recently trained with Swedish side AIK Stockholm.

Levein added: “I’m trying to get him back in the summer. I really liked him from what I saw. The lad is very young but I want to see him playing in a pre-season friendly.

“He is a central midfielder normally. He is probably a bit more attack-minded than defensive. For a young boy, his training was good.”

Levein is also hopeful defender Michael Smith can make a welcome comeback for the derby visit of Hibs.

The Northern Ireland cap has been sidelined since tearing a thigh muscle in the February 10 Scottish Cup victory over Auchinleck Talbot and has sat out the last nine matches.