When Hearts went top of the table during a captivating but ultimately ill-fated campaign of 1985-86, the Scottish football writer John Fairgrieve insisted far too much was being made of his team’s prominence. “This is the club that represents the capital city,” he wrote. “Not merely Stenhousemuir, Montrose, Hibernian or Arbroath.”
The dig at Hibs still makes those who frequent Tynecastle Park smile, but there was a broader truism. Edinburgh, for reasons enhanced by four decades of Old Firm championship dominance, is viewed in provincial football terms.
Hearts had the smartest man in the room long before Tony Bloom predicted an end to Glasgow’s stranglehold. James Anderson is the remarkable, modest philanthropist who has bestowed tens of millions of benefactor funds on Hearts over the past decade when not mixing with the most illustrious names in technology or finance. For fuller context, he also gave $100m to a university in Bologna.
A dispiriting element of football means Anderson will receive far more gratitude in Italy than in Gorgie. “I genuinely believe football is deeply important as a social unifying force,” Anderson, a Hearts director, says. “We usually walk to Tynecastle and see all the different people, different backgrounds, different ethnic derivations. I want to beat Hibs and love the rivalry, but do I hate them? No, I don’t.”
Anderson, in the company of the Hearts chair, Ann Budge, was so excited by what he heard from Bloom during an exploratory meeting in early 2024 that he fell on to a London pavement as he left. Bloom approached Hearts about involvement towards the end of 2023. The Brighton owner will return to a packed Tynecastle on Sunday to see the unbeaten hosts face Celtic, whom they lead by five points at the top of Scotland’s Premiership. Does Anderson share Bloom’s excitement? You bet he does.
“I think our opportunities are great,” Anderson says. “This is about a structural addressing of where Hearts can get to. For heaven’s sake, if a town with less than 1,500 inhabitants in Sweden can win the league …
“I am an international comparisons person, so I look at AZ Alkmaar, Villarreal, Atalanta, Union Berlin … If I look at the financial advantages [of Celtic and Rangers] I don’t find the gulf insuperable. The economics of Brighton are remarkable compared to others in England. We ought to be able to do this in Edinburgh, in many ways a luckier and richer city than Glasgow.”
Anderson does nothing to sugarcoat the “staggering underperformance” of the Scottish game’s inability to find at least a third championship candidate. Union Saint-Gilloise have struggled in this season’s Champions League but that they are competing at all, after claiming a first Belgian title in 90 years, is the kind of fairytale Hearts fans are clinging to. Bloom took a formal interest in Union in 2018.
There is a misconception that Bloom’s summer investment in Hearts – about £10m for 29% worth of non-voting shares – is the potential game-changer. With two managers sacked last season and no European revenue in this, the cash was fundamentally useful rather than a bonus. What counts for Hearts is the exclusive Scottish use of Jamestown Analytics, the renowned data tool, which, while not owned by Bloom, is an offshoot of his Starlizard business. Bloom’s adjoining cash was a means to show he had belief Hearts could flourish. Bloom’s ally James Franks sits on the board, but control remains in the hands of the Foundation of Hearts supporter movement.
Anderson had already privately determined that analytics was key to Hearts’ aspiration.
“I had [previously] thought that simply by increasing resource base there had to be a payoff,” he says. “The next stage was that I came to the view that our more traditional recruitment methods were not working. Did I think we would have an opportunity with what clearly seems to me the best data set in the world? That was beyond my hopes.
“I had been convinced of the data’s value before our first meeting. I still find it strange that only a very limited number of people [in Scotland] truly grasp it. Nobody should underestimate the sheer dimensions and knowledge level.”
But what struck Anderson about Bloom? “His enormous enthusiasm for the project and the way that transcended narrow economics. I could tell it wasn’t just Tony, that he leads a hugely impressive organisation.”
When Bloom spoke bullishly in August about where Hearts could reach – champions within a decade – he did so with an advantage over the audience. The Hearts squad, compiled on a net spend of low six figures, was in a better position than he had thought possible within such a short period of Jamestown use. Cláudio Braga, a striker signed from the Norwegian second tier, has been a revelation. Alexandros Kyziridis, a Greek winger, has excelled since landing in Edinburgh via Slovakia. Equally notable is that Jamestown saw value in Harry Milne at Partick Thistle and Oisin McEntee at Walsall.
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Hearts paid more than £1m for a player for the first time in the last window; the Brazilian midfielder Eduardo Ageu (Anderson performed a crucial role in that deal) is yet to make impact owing to injury but should do so before long. There are high hopes for Iceland’s Tómas Bent Magnússon and for Pierre Landry Kaboré, who hails from Burkina Faso; neither has been able to command proper game time because of Hearts’ form. Derek McInnes, the manager, has been adept in refusing to temper expectations of supporters and generating what feels a special team spirit among a large, diverse group.
Budge will soon step down, ending an official connection with Hearts that began as the club exited administration in 2014. The intervening years have not always been kind, so it feels appropriate that the businesswoman leaves with Hearts in everybody’s minds for the right reasons.
“Less than six months ago we had ‘Sack the board’ shouts,” Anderson says. “Ann has been remarkable in coping with that. I have been chewed out by Elon Musk, so my tolerance level is high enough.
“I thought what we were doing with Tony was far more important than short-term outcomes. The feedback loop in football is so quick and there is a degree of impatience that is not helpful. There is magnification of what unfortunately is a pretty random set of outcomes. For all of the extraordinary improvements at Hearts it is not inconceivable you go six matches without winning. Jamestown can stand strong against that and have the credibility to do so.”
Those conditioned to believe Celtic or Rangers will maintain a status quo ignore underlying factors. Rangers’ American ownership group, who have just sacked a manager after 123 days, insist the club will be run “sustainably”. Gone, then, are the loss-making chases. Rangers’ summer net spend was to the same value as a share issue. Celtic’s position is stronger – they have won all but one title since 2011 – but have found it increasingly difficult to attract players even before the crash in Scotland’s Uefa club coefficient that will soon make life harder.
If Celtic cannot promise even occasional Champions League football, their player market diminishes. There is disharmony between Celtic’s powerbrokers and supporters.
Celtic may win at Tynecastle. Indeed, the champions would love nothing more than ripping up another pretender story. Hearts’ direction of travel leaves the inescapable sense that they are not going away. “The model takes two or three years to really work in full,” Anderson says. “I am absolutely prepared to do what I can within that. There is no intention to step back. We will keep going.”
It would be wise to pay attention.
