Craig Levein on how hard it will be for Hearts to emulate his achievement of successive third place finishes

It is 18 years since Hearts last backed up a top three finish with more of the same.

Since then, they have been striving for consistency at the top end of the league standings and while there have been a further four second or third place finishes, the best they were able to follow any of them up with was fourth best, in 2006/07.

On the other occasions they had to settle for fifth and sixth spots, illustrating just how difficult it is to replicate the form needed to metronomically deliver week in, week out over the course of a demanding campaign.

“There are a lot of contributing factors in that,” insists Craig Levein, the last man to oversee a Tynecastle side proving themselves best of the rest in successive seasons, when his 2003/04 squad repeated the league achievements of the 2002/03 campaign.

“The very nature of finishing third means you have Europe to consider as well when it comes to the second season, and that combination of playing in Europe and still finding a way to perform in the various domestic competitions is very difficult.

“You need to have enough good players in the group to ensure a version of success in the European arena while still maintaining standards and performing really consistently in the league.

“That is a big ask. It is not easy because if you do well in the initial season it is often the case that you lose two or three of your best players to the Old Firm or to clubs in England. The fact you finish third shows that you are going well and that is when predators appear on the horizon.”

Such was the case this summer as defender John Souttar headed west to join up with Rangers, while striker Ellis Simms’ performances in helping Hearts seal third spot alerted a number of English sides to his