3 days ago
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It is instructive that Thursday evening’s Europa League clash in Bologna could be regarded by Celtic as an inconvenience. Aberdeen hold the Scottish Cup. St Mirren claimed the League Cup in December. Celtic find themselves involved in a title race worthy of the name. In short, domestic dominance is no longer a guarantee.
Much has been said – and screamed – about the flow of poor decision-making that at least has Celtic’s hitherto immovable position in Scotland under threat. There has also been wild exaggeration in respect of the current crop of Celtic and Rangers players being among the worst in living memory. Celtic finished fourth and adrift of Motherwell in successive seasons from 1993. Rangers rattled around unconvincingly in the lower divisions, including a failed attempt to win promotion from the second tier, after their financial meltdown of 2012. The relative weakness of others in Scotland’s top flight is a reasonable point for debate but Old Firm fans have encountered much, much worse than this.
It is instead worth focusing on the significance of the occasion as Celtic visit Tynecastle Park on Sunday. Tony Bloom promised disruption and tilts at glory when he formalised his involvement with Hearts last summer. In a matter of months, his prescience has been borne out. Hearts, the most consistent and therefore finest team in Scotland so far this season, have spent four of them atop the Premiership.
Pressure is firmly on Celtic to eat into a gap which sits at six points before a ball is kicked in Edinburgh. It would be wrong to suggest Scottish football’s broad audience would relish a Hearts title triumph – followers of Hibernian understandably would not fancy that outcome very much – but even the notion of the league flag flying outside Glasgow for the first time in more than 40 years has turned heads in far-off lands.
Hearts have encountered setbacks. Last weekend’s Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Falkirk, coupled with the concession of a League Cup place to St Mirren, were painful for a club that should be serious about contesting for honours.
“The vast majority of our fans have a huge trust in this team and a huge trust in what we are doing,” said the Hearts manager, Derek McInnes. “We are still the underdog in terms of what we pay in wages and transfer fees. For us to be in this position, above Rangers and Celtic, requires a lot of people to be doing their jobs well.”
Chief among them is McInnes himself. It should never be smooth for a manager of traditional ilk to work within Hearts’ new normal, where Bloom’s favoured analytics tool – Jamestown – is fundamental to the signing or retention of players.
McInnes inherited numerous personnel who had been at Hearts for a decent length of time. The squad has been enhanced by players from Walsall, Italy’s Serie C, the Norwegian second division and leagues in Slovakia, Iceland, Estonia and Kazakhstan to name only a few. Bloom and his lieutenants are understanding of the fact there will be a general adaptation period for players arriving in Scotland but McInnes has still cleared the bar. Two defeats in 22 league games and four wins out of four against the Old Firm have sharply and correctly raised optimism levels among a supporter base who, like many others, had become frustrated by the lack of jeopardy in the Scottish game. The good news for Hearts and those who relish serious competition is that this is just the start of the Edinburgh club’s journey. Hearts may well end this season empty-handed. They will return as an even stronger force.
McInnes will rightly be wary of Martin O’Neill. The Bologna game, where Celtic clung on for a point with 10 men, reiterated a sense of togetherness and organisation so sorely absent during the shambolic tenure of Wilfried Nancy. O’Neill and Celtic do not have the transfer-market pull they had during his original term in office, two decades ago. The 73-year-old must think in bigger-picture terms than during an eight-game stint earlier in this campaign. Yet O’Neill has experience of success in this domain. The Northern Irishman is as astute as he ever was. He also has a point to prove after the rather unsatisfactory means by which his managerial career appeared to play out at Sunderland, latterly with the Republic of Ireland and abruptly at Nottingham Forest. O’Neill’s ego is useful to Celtic in this context.
Hearts have been hampered by injuries to key players, notably Cammy Devlin and Lawrence Shankland. Celtic will feel no sympathy given the length of time they have had to make do without Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston. Still, Hearts have been sharper than Celtic in this transfer window. Rangers’ recent run of form means Sunday’s game is by no means make-or-break, as only the 23rd of 38. It is, however, a fixture that carries huge meaning. Hearts’ task is to roll their challenge on and towards plenty more of the same.
