HEARTS ON FIRE
Perhaps the only surprising thing about Hearts’ victory over Celtic in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday was just how surprised people (who presumably don’t pay too much attention to football played north of the border) were when news of the result and its ramifications for the top of the table filtered through. While this 3-1 win at Tynecastle, which leaves the Jambos top of the table and eight points clear of Celtic, was seismic in nature, nobody who has been following the fortunes of either team this season will have been even remotely shocked by the result. For each of the past 40 seasons, the Glasgow duopoly of Celtic and Rangers have carved up the Scottish league between them, reducing fitba to something of a punchline in the process. Nine games into the current campaign it has become apparent that Heart of Midlothian – who number Stephen Hendry, Sir Chris Hoy and Ken Stott among their celebrity fans – might just be ready to strike while the Old Firm iron is freezing cold.
While much of the focus in Scotland has been on the absolute bin-fire of a season being endured by Rangers, the full-spectrum nightmare of the situation at Ibrox has meant that Celtic’s slightly less terminal decay has been allowed to fester below the radar. The reigning champions have already dropped 10 points from nine league games this season under Brendan Rodgers. The Celtic manager has developed the thousand-yard stare of a man who can’t stop checking his Google calendar to see how many days are left until his contract expires, and woke up this morning to discover the answer is 246. “I’ve never worked harder in all my time here,” he told reporters following the defeat, after they had questioned his appetite for anything resembling a title fight. “So the motivation is there to try and flip the levels that we’re at. It’s absolutely fine, it’s still so early.”
Given the horrific start to the season being endured by Rangers, Rodgers and his men could normally be expected to get away with their own failure to roar out of the traps, but this year an Edinburgh disruptor has entered the mix. Despite being forced to operate with a war-chest that isn’t so much a tiny fraction of Celtic’s as a comparative budgetary baw-hair, Hearts have added the money and expertise of Tony Bloom to the SPL mix. As well as investing £10m during the summer, the Brighton owner has granted Hearts exclusive use of his top secret data-driven Jamestown Analytics recruitment tool. In Oisin McEntee, Alexandros Kyziridis and Cláudio Braga it has enabled them to unearth unpolished gems from Walsall, the Slovakian top flight and the Norwegian second tier, among other exotic footballing outposts, for the combined cost of a mid-range family saloon. Spotted at Tynecastle on Sunday wearing a Hearts scarf, the famously shrewd professional gambler could be seen celebrating each goal with the gusto of a man who had almost certainly noticed the bookies had massively underestimated his side’s chances of beating the out-of-sorts champions, and filled his boots accordingly.
“I don’t think it’s a statement win,” said bearded Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes after his side’s latest victory, their eighth in nine league matches. “It might be for others on the outside looking in. It might change opinions. It might validate opinions that there’s a tightrope. But let’s not kid ourselves, we’re really pleased with what the lads have given us. Technically, we look in a good place, and certainly physically we look in a good place, so long may that continue. Naturally, it’s not a position that this club is used to being in.” No, Derek, it isn’t. But the glorious, data-driven truth is that for the first time in ages, Scottish football might actually have a title race that somebody other than Celtic or Rangers can win.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s nice to have good human beings who stand up for those who don’t have a voice, who don’t have any power. When everyone seems against them, someone needs to step up. [He] did that again and again. So I’m glad I made the film. We have this moment while [he]’s here and feels it. We’re not waiting till after he’s gone to tell him how much we all love him” – Oscar-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia on why he made a documentary, released this coming weekend, about Kenny Dalglish. Read Donald McRae’s interview with the pair here.
Kenny Dalglish with Asif Kapadia. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
My first team was Yeovil Town on the sloping pitch when I was 10 years old growing up in Somerset. Then I lived in Sutton in my early 20s and used to go along there occasionally. In 1979 I started going to Highfield Road because my near neighbour Ian was a Coventry City fan. I adopted them as my team although I sometimes fell asleep during the matches as I’d drunk too much at the Tam o’ Shanter club with his dad. I’ve got my FA Cup final and Charity Shield programmes signed by John Sillett and I’ve even watched them play against Forest Green in League Two. And now they’re being tipped as promotion candidates. It really is the hope and expectation that hurts, isn’t it?” – Leslie Hand.
No letter from Noble Francis on Friday about Sheffield Wednesday’s woes? Discarding the chance that you didn’t publish because it wasn’t funny as too remote, can we conclude that Noble has spent the day drinking Tin and missed the deadline?” – Noble Fr Andy Neill.
Apropos of nothing, Ange Postecoglou grew up a Liverpool fan” – Jarrod Prosser.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Jarrod Prosser, who gets a copy of A History of Football in 100 Objects from the Guardian Bookshop, which has loads of other great football reads, too. Get shopping! Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
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