Hearts investor Tony Bloom’s comments about challenging Celtic for the title were certainly headline grabbers.
The Brighton owner said Hearts can challenge Celtic for the title as he took in press duties before watching the Tynecastle club beat Aberdeen 2-0 last night.
Sitting joint-top of the Scottish Premiership table now alongside Celtic and Hibs, after just one game of the season Bloom has gone in two-footed about Hearts’ chances of winning the league.
And Bloom’s comments caused a heated debate in the Sky Sports studio between Celtic hero Chris Sutton, former Rangers striker Kris Boyd and ex-Motherwell forward James McFadden.
Why Tony Bloom believes Hearts can challenge Celtic
Bloom currently owns Brighton and has investment in Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise. In his time at both clubs he has used his Jamestown Analytics company to assist with recruitment and Bloom has now deployed this at Hearts.
In his time at Brighton, Bloom has established the small seaside club into a Premier League club by recruiting some of the top young talents in football such as Celtic hero Matt O’Riley.
In the last four seasons, Brighton have finished 9th, 6th 11th, and 8th in the English Premier League.
As for Union Saint-Gilloise, Bloom took the Belgian club out of the second division into the top tier and in 2021 won their first piece of silverware since 1976, winning the Belgian Cup to take them into European football too.
Saint-Gilloise also won the Belgian Cup in 2022.
Chris Sutton on Bloom’s ‘really bullish’ Celtic comments as Boyd and McFadden disagree
After Bloom made his comments about Hearts challenging Celtic for the title, it sparked a heated debate in the Sky Sports studio as Sutton, Boyd and McFadden exchanged views on the Hearts man’s claim
Sutton said on Sky Sports, “Really, really bullish. Really bold, but he does have a track record of improving clubs.
“He did it at Union Saint-Gilloise, they won a title in Belgium, and you see the improvement which is made at Brighton.
“And he feels, because of this, the analytics he can get on the right side of the analytics, and that’s where they can win and really push the likes of Celtic.”
McFadden: “If they are going to challenge for the title, and if they’re going to realise what Tony Bloom is saying in that interview there, then the analytics aren’t going to solely be the reason that they’ll be able to close that gap.
“Because financially, I don’t think they’ll ever be able to compete with Celtic and Rangers. I don’t think they want to, because Hearts have been in trouble at different times throughout their history.
“They don’t want to go down that route again. So the analytics, when it was first floated, I think people scoffed at it and said analytics, there’s no place for football.
“And I think if it was an unknown that was coming in, you would say, let’s see how this works, probably more on the side of cynicism, but because it’s worked at Brighton, because it’s worked at Union Saint-Gilloise.
“It works, it’s proven to work.”
Sutton: “It didn’t work last year for Hearts.”
McFadden: “I mean, it’s not going to be an instant success. It didn’t work last year. I think that the way that even the managerial appointment, I think that Neil Critchley come out very high in the analytics to be appointed manager.
“And after the interview, that’s the route they decided to go down. Derek McInnes, everybody knows Derek McInnes, the way that he works and the success he’s had, I would still say that Derek would have been put through that process as well, in terms of, they’ve identified the manager.
“They still need to use the analytics to maybe look at the way it’s going to work. But I think this works. There’s no doubt it works.”
Sutton: “How can you say there’s no doubt it works? We haven’t seen evidence of it, of it just yet.”
Boyd: “Why would it not work in Scotland? Why would it not work in Scotland?”
Sutton: “That’s in theory. He expects it to work.”
Boyd: “But it works everywhere else in the world.”
Sutton: “The bottom line is, he’s bullish about taking this Hearts team to win a title, there’ll be a lot of scepticism about that. It is unlikely, it’s not impossible, but it is unlikely.”
In all honesty, Bloom’s comments are refreshing and Celtic will welcome any challenge of their domination of Scottish football.
After all, Rangers have tried, and failed miserably since 2012.
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