14 hours ago
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Hearts 3-1 Celtic
©IMAGO
The contrast between the two sets of fans couldn’t have been more apparent. With 56 minutes on the clock and having just seen their side score a third goal against Celtic thanks to a penalty kick from Lawrence Shankland, Hearts fans throughout Tynecastle turned to the main stand to thank the man they believe has quickly guided them to the top of the Scottish Premiership table. “Tony, Tony Bloom!” sang the home support, while dejected Celtic supporters in the away section slumped over their own banners, which made no remark about their own title aspirations or their cross-city rivals Rangers. Instead there were pictures of four members of the Celtic board with red lines across their faces, denoting the frustration fans have felt over the way their club has been run.
It was the perfect moment to illustrate where both clubs are at the moment. Following Sunday’s win, Hearts now sit eight points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership. Having just dropped two points in nine games, the Jam Tarts have so far enjoyed their best start to a league campaign in the Scottish top-flight since the 2005/06 season, when George Burley’s side split the Old Firm and ended up finishing second in the table. However, Sunday’s performance certainly didn’t look like Hearts were ready to settle for second place this season, even if manager Derek McInnes was quick to downplay a potential title challenge. “We've got a good thing going at the minute, but it's only three points. It's important for us to keep winning, and I'm glad we've managed to do that,” said the Hearts manager after the game. “We've got loads to do, loads to do. After the first two rounds of fixtures is normally an indication of where you are."
Despite McInnes’ modesty, the buzz around Tynecastle is impossible to ignore. Following a €11.3 million investment from Brighton owner Bloom in the summer, the capital side have quickly become one of Scottish football’s most improved clubs. Part of that is unquestionably the work McInnes has done with the players he inherited when he joined the club in May, but Hearts have also run circles around their underperforming domestic rivals this season and it’s certainly beginning to show on the league table. And if they can take advantage of turmoil at both Glasgow clubs, British football may be looking at the first Scottish Premiership champions from outside of Glasgow since 1985. So how has so much changed so quickly in the Scottish top-flight? Let’s take a look.
The sudden demise of Celtic
To understand why Celtic aren’t coasting to another league title, we need only to look at their starting XI that took to the field on Sunday. While Brendan Rodgers’ side were missing big first-team players through injury - like Cameron Carter-Vickers, Alistair Johnston, Jota and Daizen Maeda - it was also a team that undoubtedly looked like it had been ravaged by the summer transfer window and had so far failed to recover from that. In the aforementioned transfer window the Glasgow giants sold Nicolas Kühn to Como for €19 million and Adam Idah to Swansea for €6.9m. Last season they sold Matt O’Riley for €29.5m to Brighton and Kyogo Furuhashi to Stade Rennais for €12m. In fact, since Rodgers returned to the club in the summer of 2023, Celtic have made €133m from player sales and spent just €88m on new players to replace the departing stars. And it’s beginning to show.
Alongside the poor start to the league season, Celtic also stumbled in Champions League qualifying, as Rodgers’ side tried and failed to juggle a high turnover of players with the immediate demands of playing quality opposition in European competition. Celtic were ultimately knocked out by Kairat Almaty and have so far won just one of their opening three Europa League matches. When reflecting on the poor start to the season in a press conference last month, Rodgers admitted that the club didn’t handle the situation well. “I think the business model of the club is highly successful. What we have to marry that in with is the football,” said the Celtic boss. “Not just investment, timing of investment. It was clear what we needed, and we needed it early. We had these qualification games. Summer 2025 was a critical window for us to get players in to be ready for these games, and we weren’t ready.”
Such has been the consequences of the club’s poor performances on and off the pitch this season that speculation in Scotland now points to Rodgers departing the club when his current deal expires at the end of the season. The 52-year-old tactician confirmed earlier in the season that he had held talks with the club over a new contract but nothing has been announced since then. "My overriding feeling is I want to help the club continue moving forward. I'm not the type of manager to just maintain something, I'm not the right guy to have,” said Rodgers in August, before subtly hinting at what reassurances he’d need from the board to stay put in Glasgow next year. "I need to build, I need to work with players, develop individual players. If the club feel that that is something that they want, then I'm pretty sure we'd come to an agreement and if not, we'll give absolutely everything until the very end here." In other words: if Celtic want Rodgers to stick around, they’ll have to do a better job of investing in his squad in the next transfer window.
The Bloom revolution at Hearts
When Bloom invested in Hearts earlier this year he stated that he wanted to “disrupt the pattern of domination which has been in place for far too long" but even he would perhaps admit that he didn’t expect the Edinburgh club to rise up the ranks as quickly as they have. That, undoubtedly, has been helped by Celtic’s demise, alongside Rangers’ own struggles - the Ibrox club just appointed their fifth manager in the last four years - but where the perennial Scottish champions have struggled off the pitch, Hearts have undoubtedly thrived and that has helped McInnes’ side to take advantage of the huge power vacuum at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
While Scottish top-flight clubs typically rely on signings from other Scottish clubs or have a worrying reliance on loan signings from England, nine of Hearts’ 10 summer signings came from outside the United Kingdom. Whether it be Cláudio Braga and Christian Borchgrevink from Norwegian clubs, Alexandros Kyziridis plucked from Serbian club Michalovce, or club record signing Ageu signed from Portuguese club Santa Clara, Hearts’ summer business had all the hallmarks of Jamestown Analytics - Bloom’s renowned data analytics service that has helped the 55-year-old’s other clubs succeed in England and Belgium. And, to no great surprise, Hearts’ new arrivals have been excellent additions to McInnes’ side.
For example, Braga has so far picked up an incredible eight goals and four assists in his first 14 games for the club, while left winger Kyziridis has been almost as impressive with five goals and five assists in 12 games. In total, new signings for McInnes’ team have scored 11 league goals in the first nine fixtures of the season. Only one club (Dundee United on 14 goals) have seen more league goals scored by new signings this season. And, crucially, Hearts’ figure is almost double that of Celtic and Rangers (six each). When we couple that with the club’s success in convincing star striker Shankland (eight goals and three assists in 13 games this season) to stay this summer, it’s clear that Hearts have managed to hit the ground running because of their success in the summer transfer window.
A lot has changed at Hearts in the last six months. The last time they played Celtic in the regular season prior to Sunday’s 3-1 win was back in April, when Rodgers’ side comfortably won 3-0 against a team that had just bid farewell to sacked manager Neil Critchley. The club only steered clear of relegation a few weeks after that game, but rather than celebrations from the club’s fans, chants of “sack the board” were all too clear in the stands. Since then Ann Budge, who has been leading the club in one role or another since 2014, has announced that she will step down from her role at this year’s AGM in December.
Whether that is due to last season’s turmoil or because of Bloom’s growing influence at the club remains to be seen, but there’s little doubt that Hearts are finishing 2025 in far better shape than they began it. Whether this remarkable form can continue remains to be seen, but while Celtic and Rangers continue to bicker over internal conflicts, McInnes’ side seem more than happy to take advantage of the situation on the pitch. Scottish football hasn’t seen a title celebration outside of Celtic Park or Ibrox in 40 years. And if Tynecastle does end up hosting one in May, it will end up being one of the most remarkable stories in European football this season.
