🔗 Share this article

JAMBOS BLAZING

Perhaps the sole unexpected aspect of Heart of Midlothian's victory over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which taken aback people appeared when reports of the result and its consequences for the summit of the standings circulated. Although this convincing victory at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos top of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was earth-shattering in nature, no one who has been following the fortunes of both team this season will have been even remotely shocked by the result.

For each of the last 40 seasons, the dominance of two Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish football between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the meantime. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who count Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be ready to strike while the Glasgow duo influence is freezing cold.

CELTIC'S SLUMP

While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being suffered by Rangers, the complete turmoil of the situation at Ibrox has resulted in that Celtic's slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The reigning champions have so far dropped 10 points from nine league games this season under their manager. The Celtic manager has developed the distant look of a individual who constantly consulting his schedule to find out how many time are remaining until his deal expires, and woke up this morning to discover the number is over two hundred.

"No one has put in more effort in my entire tenure here," he told reporters following the loss, after they had doubted his desire for anything resembling a championship battle. "Therefore the drive is there to try and reverse the standards that we're at. Everything is under control, there is plenty of time."

EDINBURGH DISRUPTOR

Given the horrific start to the campaign being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could normally be anticipated to get away with their own inability to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has joined the fray. In spite of being forced to function with a war-chest that isn't so much a tiny fraction of Celtic's as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, the Tynecastle outfit have introduced the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the Scottish Premiership equation. In addition to putting in ten million pounds during the off-season, the Premier League figurehead has granted the club sole use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.

In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and a Brazilian prospect it has allowed them to discover hidden talents from an English lower-league side, the Slovakian top flight and the Norway's second division, among other lesser-known leagues, for the combined cost of a modest car. Spotted at their home venue on matchday wearing a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen celebrating each score with the gusto of a man who had likely noticed the bookies had greatly underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts title holders, and placed large bets accordingly.

COACH'S RESPONSE

"In my opinion it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his team's latest victory, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It may confirm views that there's a tightrope. But we must be realistic, we are delighted with what the lads have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly in fitness we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, this is not a situation that the team is used to being in." Correct, the manager, it isn't. But the wonderful, analytics-backed reality is that for the first time in many years, Scottish football might genuinely have a title race that a team besides Celtic or Rangers can claim.