BLOOMING MARVELLOUS
Despite the Scottish Premiership title race being more predictable than Football Daily at a bottomless brunch, fitba has never been short of drama. Who can forget Ross County deleting their own website, Kirk Broadfoot suffering facial burns after microwaving an egg and former Hearts manager Robbie Neilson trying to give journalists the slip as he left the club’s training ground by sending out a decoy (sports scientist John Hill) to the car park in a Robbie Neilson mask. Edinburgh, very much the second city in Scotland when it comes to football, still has one of the game’s finest rivalries between two grand old clubs, Hearts and Hibernian. Each have had their moments in recent derbies: last year Hearts’ Lawrence Shankland celebrated scoring a penalty by catching and eating a pie thrown by a Hibs supporter. In March, Jack Iredale scored a screamer to win the derby for Hibs. The post-match celebrations at Easter Road featured one of the finest ever renditions of Sunshine on Leith, a song sung with so much feeling that it left some Hibs players in tears. And who can blame them? If you get goosebumps watching that song, imagine what it must be like to come from that corner of Scotland, stand on that terrace and sing those lyrics in front of your victorious team. Magic.
The point is, fitba is far greater than just Rangers and Celtic. And this is very much the opinion of Tony Bloom, the owner of Brighton who bought a 29% stake in Hearts this summer for £9.86m. Following the club’s opening win over Aberdeen – a 2-0 victory that leaves the Jambos top of the Premiership table – Bloom was in a bullish mood as he faced the media, explaining that he thinks Hearts can challenge for glory. “If we have not won the league title in the next 10 years, I will be very disappointed,” Bloom stated. “I want to make sure that we are in the talk to win the title at the start of each season.”
We have heard this sort of patter before, a new owner coming in and telling a club’s supporters what they want to hear. The difference is, Bloom has a track record of using his army of data nerds and analytics gurus to drastically improve clubs with savvy recruitment. Brighton are now one of the best run clubs in England, while Union Saint-Gilloise, who were bottom of Belgium’s second tier when the Englishman took over in 2018, won the Belgian top flight a few months ago for the first time in 90 years and are in Bigger Cup.
The last time a club that wasn’t called Celtic or Rangers won the Scottish Premiership was 1985 and the last time Hearts won it was 65 years ago, but Bloom seems untroubled. “I understand there will be a lot of Celtic and Rangers fans, maybe Hibs and Aberdeen fans, who will be laughing and saying ‘we’ve heard it all before’,” he blathered. “I just thought there was an opportunity here to shake things up in Scotland. I think we’ve got a very good chance of at least being second this season. I’ve just got a lot more confidence of what Hearts can do compared to when I did my first press conference at Union seven years ago.”
Bloom has wasted no time in bringing in a new striker, Cláudio Braga, who (very much in the Brighton ilk) was signed from Norwegian second-division side FK Aalesunds for around £400,000. The Portuguese bagged four goals in five pre-season matches – including one in a 3-0 win over Premier League Sunderland – and already has a chant among the Tynecastle faithful: “All we need is … Cláudio Braga,” set to the tune of the Queen classic. Sunshine on Leith it is not, but Hearts fans will be getting goosebumps regardless.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
A couple of friends had come over to see me, we were chatting, and suddenly they said they couldn’t understand what I was saying. My speech was slurring. I had gone for a walk that morning and felt wobbly, just very lethargic. I was sapped of any energy and a couple of times I felt as though I might stumble but I didn’t” – in an extract from a new book, the former Portsmouth, Leeds and Exeter defender Noel Blake talks about the emotional and physical battle of recovering from a stroke.
Celta Vigo signing Athletic Bilbao youngster Luis Bilbao and signing Bryan Zaragoza are yet more disappointing nails in coffin of nominative determinism. Now, it’s just me and a lad I knew at school called Gareth Thickett who failed all his exams that are keeping up the good fight …” – Noble Francis.
I rarely agree with Dr Tottenham, but he’s right … it will be greatly appreciated when he leaves” – Chris Brown.
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our letter o’ the day is … Chris Brown, who lands some Football Weekly merch. Terms and conditions for our competitions are here.
RECOMMENDED LOOKING
Our man David Squires veers away from football this week to tell the story of his boxing forebear who died on the Titanic. It’s well worth your time.
