There's more to McLaren than meets the eye, says Levein

admitted yesterday that McLaren's departure would be a big loss to

Hearts.

''He is a very good player,'' said Levein of his defensive sidekick,

''and at his age and with his attitude he can only get better.''

The Hearts defender was speaking at the launch of his own testimonial

year, a reward for almost 11 years of outstanding service to the club he

joined for #30,000 from Cowdenbeath in 1983.

A dinner, golf tournament, a race in his name at Kelso's first evening

meeting, and a major game all are on the schedule of events planned by

the committee for one of the more deserving recipients of these kind of

benefit schemes.

McLaren has been a good listener at the side of the man who recovered

from a desperate knee injury -- twice -- to regain not only his Hearts

position but his place in the Scottish international team.

''Alan is like that, a good learner, and a lot of people have failed

to appreciate how good a passer of the ball he is. He has all the

aggression needed by a central defender, but he has more than that.

Everybody at this club knew from his very early days here as a

16-year-old that he was going to be special.

''In a perfect world I am sure Hearts would keep him, but financially

they seem to have no choice. He will be missed, but when a team is on a

roll, like we are just now, taking one man away does not mean the end of

the run. There is a bit of belief about the club just now and that won't

disappear with Alan.''

Levein and a famous name from a different era -- and a different

country -- Johnny Haynes, enjoyed some banter as they made their pleas

for the resurrection of the oldest international in the world, the

Scotland-England annual clash which has been out of existence for five

years.

''In my day it was the the biggest game there was,'' said the former

Fulham and England star. ''We still had qualifying games for the World

Cup and all that, but the game between England and Scotland was the

biggest of the season.''

A winner of 56 caps for his country, Haynes had a ready smile for the

gathering when he reminded us that he was captain of the team that won

9-3 at Wembley in 1961, and it didn't reduce any as he added: ''I played

six times against Scotland and lost only once, the last one. I loved

those games and I think the fans would love them again.''

Haynes' cry echoes the sentiments of the current England manager,

Terry Venables, who has already said that he would like to see the old

contest revived.

Levein, one of a generation of Scottish internationalists who has

never played against England, believes everybody north of the Border

would vote in favour of restoring the match . . . ''players, fans, and

everybody else.''

Meanwhile, another defender, Rangers' Steven Pressley, made the move

he hopes will benefit his career when he joined Coventry City in a

#600,000 deal.

The transfer should quicken the McLaren move to Ibrox, which seems

likely to involve the move back to Tynecastle of Dave McPherson.