Why Hearts' Landmark Title Tilt Shouldn't Come as a Shock.
HEARTS ON FIRE
Maybe the sole surprising element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was just how taken aback observers appeared when news of the outcome and its consequences for the top of the table emerged. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the league and eight points clear of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the fortunes of both squad this season will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.
Over the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, reducing the beautiful game to something of a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the current season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be ready to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.
CELTIC'S SLUMP
While much of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine league games this season under their manager. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to discover the answer is over two hundred.
"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure at the club," he told the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."
EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR
Considering the horrific start to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. In spite of being obliged to operate with a budget that isn't so much a small portion of Celtic's as a minuscule amount in comparison, Hearts have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as putting in £10m during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his top secret data-driven proprietary scouting player identification system.
In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a man who had likely realized the bookies had massively misjudged his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets as a result.
COACH'S RESPONSE
"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his side's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But let's not kid ourselves, we're really pleased with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we appear in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it is not. But the glorious, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might actually have a title race that a team besides the traditional powers can claim.
