Maybe the sole unexpected aspect of Hearts' triumph over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership was the extent to which surprised observers appeared when news of the outcome and its impact for the top of the table emerged. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which puts the Jambos top of the table and a significant margin ahead of their rivals, was seismic in scale, nobody who has been tracking the fortunes of either team this season will have been even remotely astonished by the final score.
Over the past four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, turning fitba to almost a joke in the meantime. Nine games into the present season it has become clear that Heart of Midlothian – who count celebrated snooker player, Sir Chris Hoy and renowned actor among their celebrity fans – could be prepared to strike while the Glasgow duo iron is at its weakest.
While a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the disastrous season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the circumstances at their stadium has meant that the title holders' slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The reigning champions have already lost a considerable number from their opening nine fixtures this season under their manager. The team's boss has acquired the distant look of a man who can't stop checking his Google calendar to find out how many days are remaining until his contract ends, and woke up this day to discover the number is over two hundred.
"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he informed reporters following the loss, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. "Therefore the drive is there to attempt to flip the levels that we're at. It's absolutely fine, there is plenty of time."
Given the dreadful beginning to the season being experienced by the other Glasgow side, Rodgers and his players could typically be expected to escape scrutiny for their own failure to roar out of the traps, but on this occasion an capital city challenger has joined the fray. 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, the Tynecastle outfit have added the investment and expertise of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership equation. As well as investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Brighton owner has provided the club exclusive 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 hidden talents from Walsall, the Slovak first division and the Norwegian second tier, among other lesser-known leagues, for the total price of a modest car. Spotted at Tynecastle on matchday wearing a club colours, the notoriously astute sports betting expert could be seen cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively underestimated his side's prospects of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and placed large bets accordingly.
"In my opinion it's a statement win," said bearded team manager the head coach after his team's latest success, their eighth in nine league matches. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter opinions. It may confirm opinions that there's a fine line. But we must be realistic, we're really pleased with what the players have provided us. Technically, we look in a good place, and definitely physically we seem in a good place, so we hope it persists. Naturally, it's not a position that the team is used to being in." No, 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 somebody other than the traditional powers can claim.
A software engineer and tech writer passionate about open-source projects and AI advancements.
