Sound business practice was put in place, built on a solid Foundation, but the key factor in the re-structuring of Hearts that led to last weekend's Championship winning party was personal relationships according to Craig Levein.

Having developed a strong understanding with Ann Budge through mutual involvement in the Foundation of Hearts, even before she took ownership of the club, he knew that to make a success of the director of football role she wanted him to take on he needed to identify the right coach.

Gary Locke had done well as a manager with minimal resources, bringing through young players while gradually becoming more competitive, but Levein had a different model in mind.

Previously asked to outline an ideal structure for a football club by a friend who was interested in buying Dundee United - where Levein had also been manager - he knew what he wanted to do, but he had to have the right personnel in place.

"Before anything, you have establish what you want to do as a club before anything to do with coaches or staff," he explained.

"That was the biggest challenge at the beginning. What is it we want to do?"

In some ways it was made easier to take his preferred route for Hearts by the predicament the club had been in and the reliance it consequently already had upon youngsters.

"For me it's simple, if you want to use that type of model then you use that type of coach. That type of coach is on the training ground two or three times a day," he said.

"The reason people want 28-year-olds is because they know how to play in that position. The problem with kids is, they don't so you need a constant education programme. You need someone who has those skills."

Levein was confident that the right man for the job was already on Hearts' books, so took Robbie Neilson, who had been the club's academy coach for the previous year, out for a meal and a chat.

"Bear in mind, I'd known Robbie since he was 16," he noted.

"He must have wondered what was going on but we talked about his footballing philosophy, systems and how he wanted to play.

"I had watched a lot of the academy games here and for me it was pretty straightforward.

"The hardest thing was the situation with Gary Locke which was really tough because I like him and he is a good guy, but he is a different type of manager."

Still only 33 at the time Neilson was new to coaching on the back of a decent but unspectacular playing career. However having first signed him on loan when in charge of Cowdenbeath in 1999, Levein had long previously identified the qualities he was looking for in his fellow former Hearts captain.

"Everyone has their own idea about what makes a good head coach but for me it is pretty straightforward, the guys who have had to work hard throughout their footballing career because their ability is limited," he said.

"For a guy with limited ability he played twice for Scotland. He is a problem solver. I know he is a good communicator because I know him as a person, he is honest and had to work his backside off to achieve what he did as a player."

Naturally there could be no certainty about how Neilson would manage a first team dressing room, however callow some of its occupants, but Levein sought to make that as easy as he could be populating it with the right sort of characters.

Even so he acknowledged that: "Robbie has exceeded everyone's expectations 100 fold."

Noting that any managerial appointment is a gamble he also accepts that this one has now paid off so spectacularly he faces a challenge to hold onto Neilson and several players which, in turn, is an occupational hazard.

In recognising that he reckons Neilson can benefit from a protracted stay at the club which will see him confront greater challenges, adding that he regrets having once suggested that he could see Neilson moving onto "bigger and better things."

"I really mean bigger things, because I think this is a fantastic job for any young manager," he clarified.

"I would want him to be ambitious, but this season, with so many things going right, this probably sounds silly but he probably hasn't learned an awful lot.

"I think he needs another couple of seasons to learn the other things."

Noting that he believes supporters were "fleeced" by previous season ticket and share offers, Levein now sees the club's future as being in safe hands however re-structuring of the business side ultimately pans out.

"Hearts didn't have a good name because of some of the stuff that has happened in the last four or five years," he said.

"What has happened in the past year has been this real movement towards the two entities (the club and the Foundation) being much more aligned.

"If they have any sense in five years time, they will ask Ann to stay on. There are some big things needing done at the club in the next ten years."

Those include deciding whether the club stays at its beloved Tynecastle home and, if so, what must be done to upgrade it, but Levein notes that with more than 8000 people making monthly contributions to the Foundation, while 12,800 season tickets have been sold, supporters are earning the right to a significant say in all of that.

"People are coming back for various reasons," he observed.

"Sponsors are coming back, businesses that have not been involved in the club for a long while. Because of the place where we are at, how low we were, we could have gone out of business, everyone has rallied round.

"All these things seem to have aligned. Ann has done a fantastic job, Robbie has done a fantastic job, the supporters have come back... these things are powerful."

So, too, is having an experienced figure who cares passionately for the club quietly bridging its commercial and footballing operations, but Levein is entitled to hope that others will make that point for him.