The Reasons Hearts' Landmark Championship Challenge Isn't as a Surprise.
HEARTS ON FIRE
Maybe the only unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was just how taken aback observers seemed when reports of the result and its impact for the summit of the standings emerged. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the league and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was earth-shattering in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of both squad this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.
Over the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of the Old Firm have divided the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number celebrated snooker player, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is at its weakest.
THE CHAMPIONS' DECLINE
Although much of the attention in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire being endured by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has meant that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been able to worsen unnoticed. The reigning champions have already dropped a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has developed the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop consulting his Google calendar to see how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and awoke this morning to discover the answer is 246.
"I've never worked harder in all my time here," he informed reporters following the defeat, after they had doubted his appetite for anything resembling a championship battle. "So the motivation is there to try and flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."
NEW CHALLENGER
Considering the dreadful beginning to the season being endured by the other Glasgow side, the Celtic boss and his players could normally be anticipated to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. In spite of being obliged to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have added the money and expertise of a renowned businessman to the SPL equation. In addition to putting in £10m during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his highly confidential analytics-based Jamestown Analytics player identification system.
In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to discover hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the total price of a mid-range family saloon. Seen at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be observed cheering each score with the gusto of a person who had almost certainly realized the oddsmakers had massively underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the struggling champions, and filled his boots accordingly.
MANAGER'S REACTION
"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth win in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the periphery. It could alter opinions. It may confirm opinions 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 certainly in fitness 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 is not. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the initial occasion in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a championship battle that somebody other than the traditional powers can claim.
