Craig Levein and Austin MacPhee Hearts leaving date revealed as duo move closer to Tynecastle exit door

Former manager and assistant poised to leave club

Austin MacPhee (left) was assistant to Craig Levein at Hearts.

Craig Levein and Austin MacPhee are set to part company with Hearts at the end of the month, the Evening News can confirm.

Their contracts both expire on May 31 and they will leave the Edinburgh club at that point after working in background roles since last year.

Levein was sacked as manager last October and assistant coach MacPhee took temporary charge until Daniel Stendel arrived in December.

Since then, Levein and MacPhee have been sharing sporting director duties and working on other football-related matters at Hearts’ Riccarton training base.

They both accepted wage cuts in March as club owner Ann Budge moved to cut costs when Scottish football was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now they are poised to officially sever ties in just over two weeks’ time.

The parting of ways will bring an end to Levein's third spell at Tynecastle Park. He played for Hearts from 1983 to 1997 before retiring early through injury. He returned as manager in 2000 and left for Leicester City four years later.

In 2014, Budge appointed Levein director of football and later gave him the manager's job again in August 2017 after sacking Ian Cathro. He was removed from both positions last October as Hearts fell to the bottom of the Premiership.

MacPhee was initially appointed Cathro's assistant in December 2016 but was retained as a coach under Levein. He was interim manager of Hearts earlier this season in between Levein’s sacking and Stendel’s appointment five weeks later.

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