The Reasons Hearts' Landmark Title Tilt Isn't as a Surprise.
HEARTS ON FIRE
Perhaps the sole surprising aspect of Heart of Midlothian's triumph over the Glasgow giants in the Scottish top flight was the extent to which surprised people appeared when news of the outcome and its impact for the top of the standings circulated. While this convincing victory at their home ground, which puts the Edinburgh side top of the table and a significant margin clear of their rivals, was seismic in scale, no one who has been tracking the progress of either team this season will have been in the least astonished by the result.
For each of the last four decades, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have divided the Scottish league between them, turning the beautiful game to almost a punchline in the process. Several matches into the present campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Olympic champion and renowned actor among their famous supporters – might just be ready to make their move while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.
CELTIC'S DECLINE
Although a lot of the attention in the Scottish game has been on the absolute bin-fire being suffered by the Ibrox club, the complete turmoil of the circumstances at their stadium has resulted in that the title holders' comparatively less severe decay has been allowed to worsen below the radar. The defending title winners have so far dropped 10 points from nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The team's boss has acquired the thousand-yard stare of a individual who can't stop checking his Google calendar to see how many days are left until his deal ends, and woke up this morning to learn the answer is over two hundred.
"I've never worked harder in my entire tenure here," he told the media following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for any kind of a title fight. "Therefore the drive is present to try and reverse the standards that we're at. It's absolutely fine, it's still so early."
NEW CHALLENGER
Considering the horrific start to the campaign being endured by Rangers, the Celtic boss and his men could normally be expected to escape scrutiny for their own inability to start strongly, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the fray. Despite being forced to function with a budget that is not just a small portion of their rivals' as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have introduced the money and knowledge of a renowned businessman to the Scottish Premiership mix. In addition to investing ten million pounds during the summer, the Premier League figurehead has granted Hearts exclusive use of his top secret analytics-based proprietary scouting recruitment tool.
In Oisin McEntee, a Greek talent and Cláudio Braga it has enabled 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 Sunday sporting a club colours, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be observed cheering each score with the enthusiasm of a person who had almost certainly realized the bookies had massively underestimated his team's prospects of defeating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.
MANAGER'S REACTION
"I don't think it's a message-sending victory," said the facial-haired Hearts gaffer the head coach after his team's most recent success, their eighth win in nine outings. "Perhaps it is for others on the outside looking in. It could alter perceptions. 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 definitely physically we look in a excellent shape, so long may that continue. Naturally, it's not a position 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 other than the traditional powers can claim.
