The Reasons Heart of Midlothian's Historic Title Tilt Isn't as a Shock.
JAMBOS BLAZING
Maybe the only unexpected element of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was just how surprised people appeared when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Edinburgh side leading of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been following the progress of both team this campaign will have been even remotely shocked by the final score.
Over the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to something of a punchline in the meantime. Several matches into the current season it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their famous supporters – could be prepared to make their move while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.
THE CHAMPIONS' SLUMP
While a lot of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the situation at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester unnoticed. The defending title winners have already lost a considerable number from their opening nine league games this term under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many time are remaining until his deal ends, and awoke this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.
"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he told the media following the defeat, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a title fight. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the levels that we're at. Everything is under control, it's still so early."
NEW CHALLENGER
Considering the horrific beginning to the campaign being endured by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be anticipated to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has entered the mix. In spite of being forced to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the investment and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. As well as investing ten million pounds during the off-season, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.
In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at their home venue on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen cheering each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely realized the oddsmakers had massively misjudged his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.
COACH'S REACTION
"I don't think it's a statement win," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side's latest victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "It might be for others on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It might validate views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the players have provided us. Technically, we appear in a strong position, and definitely physically we seem in a excellent shape, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that this club is used to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the glorious, analytics-backed truth is that for the initial occasion in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team besides the traditional powers can win.
