Perhaps the sole unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which taken aback observers appeared when news of the result and its impact for the top of the table emerged. While this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos leading of the league and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the fortunes of both team this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.
For each of the past 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing the beautiful game to almost a joke in the meantime. Several matches into the current campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – could be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.
Although a lot of the focus in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by the Ibrox club, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' slightly less terminal decline has been allowed to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have so far lost 10 points from their opening nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can't stop checking his schedule to find out how many days are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this morning to discover the number is 246.
"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "So the motivation is there to attempt to reverse the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."
Considering the horrific start to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the mix. Despite being obliged to operate with a budget that is not just a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. In addition to investing £10m during the off-season, the Brighton owner has provided Hearts sole use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics player identification system.
In an Irish defender, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has allowed them to unearth unpolished gems from an English lower-league side, the Slovak first division and the Norway's second division, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed celebrating each goal with the gusto of a person who had likely realized the bookies had massively misjudged his team's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots as a result.
"In my opinion it's a statement win," said the facial-haired team manager the head coach after his side's most recent success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for those on the periphery. It might change perceptions. It may confirm views that there's a fine line. But let's not kid ourselves, we are delighted with what the players have given us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely physically we look in a good place, so we hope it persists. Of course, this is not a situation that the team is accustomed to being in." Correct, Derek, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that a team other than the traditional powers can win.
A seasoned gambling analyst with over a decade of experience in reviewing online casinos and slot games across the UK market.