Craig Levein has wired into pundits who "open their mouth and let a lot of c**p come out" when they havn't been managers themselves.
Many will see the comments as a thinly veiled swipe at arch-critic Michael Stewart who has continually challenged the quality of Levein's Hearts record with statistics and analysis.
The Hearts boss is under pressure after a mediocre start to the season and a brand of football that hasn't always entertained the fans.
A 2-1 victory over Motherwell in the Betfred Cup has eased some of the tension but Levein feels some comments have been unwaranted.
He said: "I think there's a madness going around just now. If you look around the league everybody's complaining about everybody. I don't know where it all ends.
"Thankfully most of the owners aren't quite as jumpy as sometimes the punters can be. And I'm not sure how much it's the actual, everyday supporter. I'm not sure it involves them, I think they just get on with their lives.
"You're always dealing with the extremes in football, particularly in social media. Everybody needs to take a breath and just wait and see.
"Normally you would get halfway through a season before you were judged on how things are going, now you don't even get to the start of season. It is crazy."
"Not so much after matches because generally one of you is feeling great and the other is not," he said. "But if we meet socially or other things that don't involve us screaming at each other on the touchline, then there's a degree of empathy.
"Anybody who has been in the managerial position and done it understands that.
"Ones who haven't, who just open their mouth and let a lot of c**p come out.... you have to be in that position and worn somebody's shoes before I think you have the right to criticise.
"A lot of it just now is just noise from people who are experts on making noise.
"Why do we do it? It's a bug, it's a drug. It's what I do. And without it, it's not the same. But it is getting worse. And I laugh about it because I don't see how I can change it."
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