It has been a season like no other in Scotland.
Celtic didn’t just win the Premiership title, but they also secured the domestic double after winning the Scottish Cup final on Saturday afternoon at Hampden.
While Callum McGregor was busy lifting silverware, the tears were flowing freely in the Hearts camp – a bitter reaction to their crushing defeat at Parkhead and the wild celebrations that followed.
Martin O’Neill defended the Celtic Park faithful on talkSPORT, a statement from Hearts followed, calling his comments ‘highly irresponsible’, but Simon Jordan has defended his comments.
Jim White: “What Hearts are saying is that ‘we are aware of highly irresponsible comments made public this week.’
Jordan: “Well, they are wrong.”
White: “Are they right to jump on Martin as much as they have done?”
Jordan: “I don’t think so. The fact that the game was stopped eight seconds before. I know what they are saying, ‘this is a precedent that can’t be allowed to develop.’ There will be no indications that it’s going to develop.
“Hearts are obviously feeling aggrieved. I disbelieve there was a need for those players to leave Celtic Park in their football kits. That was optics.”
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Simon Jordan shuts down Tony Bloom’s claims after Celtic beat Hearts to the title
The Hearts players and staff didn’t even get changed at Parkhead. Instead, they remained in their kits, travelled back to Edinburgh and inside the four walls of Tynecastle.
But even Jordan wasn’t buying that nonsense.
The former Crystal Palace owner feels that the Jambos were ‘heartbroken’ at the fact that they lost the Premiership title right at the death, and then threw their toys out of the pram.
Added to that, Jordan thinks it’s ‘highly unlikely’ the Hearts players felt ‘physically intimidated’ after the defeat to Celtic, because that was the suggestion by Tony Bloom.
Either way, the reaction from Hearts to them losing the title was a joy to behold, and their tears are not stopping, even though the Premiership campaign concluded last week.
Nonetheless, this was Jordan’s reaction on talkSPORT to Hearts’ statement about how Celtic reacted to winning title number 56.
Jim White: “What Hearts are saying is that ‘we are aware of highly irresponsible comments made public this week.’
Jordan: “Well, they are wrong.”
White: “Are they right to jump on Martin as much as they have done?”
Jordan: “I don’t think so. The fact that the game was stopped eight seconds before. I know what they are saying, ‘this is a precedent that can’t be allowed to develop.’ There will be no indications that it’s going to develop.
“Hearts are obviously feeling aggrieved. I disbelieve there was a need for those players to leave Celtic Park in their football kits. That was optics.
“They all came off the field heartbroken that they missed the opportunity. They lost it against Motherwell. There is a lot about how Celtic got a penalty. I will never accept that it was a legitimate penalty, which ultimately determined the outcome of this particular championship.
“But Celtic beat Hearts on the last game of the season, so Hearts lost the league to the side that deserved to win it.”
White: “But Simon, you say that you think it was all down to ‘optics’ that the Hearts players left the stadium.”
Jordan: “Yeah, I do.”
White: “But Tony Bloom said that ‘one or two of them were physically intimidated.’”
Jordan: “Listen, if you are in a dressing room, it’s very unlikely you are going to be physically intimidated. I think the general reaction was that they were heartbroken.
“They were also aggrieved that they had to suffer the further indignation, not just the indignation of losing on the last game of the season, when it meant so much to them, and there was so much build-up.
“They felt so aggrieved. Derek McInnes said many strong words about ‘disgusting’ decisions. The bias towards potentially bigger clubs getting outcomes. The mindset was there. They have gone into Celtic Park. They have lost and are heartbroken.”
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