Celtic European performances slated by Tony Bloom as Hearts investor makes Scottish football promise

Add as preferred source on Google

Hearts are the talk of the town in Scotland at the minute.

Celtic may have won 13 of the last 14 Premiership titles, but Brendan Rodgers’ side currently sit behind the Edinburgh side in the table.

Hearts boss Derek McInnes may be pouring cold water on any talk of them challenging for the title, but it’s a different story when it comes to their new minority investor Tony Bloom.

Having transformed the fortunes of his local side Brighton and Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise with his secret data model, he sees Hearts as his next opportunity to disrupt the big boys.

But despite vowing to take them on, he has also now claimed that his presence can be a positive for Celtic.

Tony Bloom on his desired impact on Celtic and Scottish football

Celtic fans know better than anyone that Scottish football and UEFA competitions are two completely different worlds.

Despite a period of unparalleled dominance, the Hoops’ European performances have nosedived in the last decade-and-a-half relative to what came before.

READ MORE: What Kieran Tierney’s ‘problems’ say about Greg Taylor’s importance for Celtic according to Andy Walker

For Bloom, a stronger Hearts can help push Celtic further than before, and improve European results all-round. He didn’t mince his words on how the Hoops have been performing on the continent.

He told the Hearts Standard: “I genuinely believe that this would be really good for Scottish football.

“The fact that the Scottish coefficient has reduced so much that the champions have to win two games to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League is a terrible situation for Scottish football.

“I think all the clubs do need to improve. The level of Scottish football is shown by the European results, shown by the coefficient; it’s not good enough.

“Obviously, Celtic have been a standout team in Scottish football and because winning the league has been so easy for them, no one’s pushing them and that’s not good for Celtic, for when they then have to play much higher opposition in Europe.

“I just think it’ll be really good for Scottish football, even though there will no doubt be fans of the Old Firm who perhaps don’t like the fact that Hearts are going to be pushing them.

“There are significant advantages even for them.”

Would facing more competition for the title be a price worth paying for improved European performance? It’s an interesting question.

Could Tony Bloom be a net-positive for Celtic?

Clubs such as Bodo/Glimt, Red Bull Salzburg and Copenhagen have all bettered Celtic in Europe in recent times, despite operating on smaller budgets.

An equivalent club existing on the Scottish stage could be an interesting prospect.

Hoops fans obviously have no interest in seeing any other club than Celtic winning the Scottish Premiership title.

But should Bloom’s theory of a higher standard of domestic opposition making the gap to Europe easier to bridge be true, he could be a positive presence for more than just Hearts.