Something wonderfully beautiful is happening in Scotland now. And no, I’m not talking about another Lockness monster sighting. However, the extreme rarity and near disbelief of the event leaves me with no other parallels. The Scottish Premiership season table is a sight to behold this year, and we should all do that while it lasts. Hearts lead the table by a whopping 9 points with an extra game played. Celtic are a distant second, while Rangers are in fourth place. And if anyone thinks I’m exaggerating, it’s fair to reiterate how sickeningly unprecedented the duopoly is in Scottish football.
Rangers and Celtic are around twenty times richer than the league average and at least six times richer than the third richest club in the league. Between them they have 110 league titles in a total of 129 seasons. In a fine period between 1982 and 1985, three consecutive titles went to New Farm rivals Aberdeen and Dundee United. Since then, all titles have gone to the two Glasgow giants. And before 1982 you have to go back to the 1964/65 season to find a winner not called Celtic or Rangers. That’s 56 titles in the last 60 completed seasons, stacked by Old Farm rivals. Given the strength of Rangers and Celtic in the Scottish game, it’s only natural that at this point I would want to chat happily about Hearts’ brilliant season. But that joy will soon give way to the fear that such things are astronomically rare statistical anomalies in the current game.
Hearts are undefeated in the league this season. They have won 9 and drawn twice. They recently defeated Celtic in a very impressive performance. They had already beaten Rangers 2-0 at Ibrox Park in mid-September with a calm and confident performance. Hearts appear to be on course for a league title after a 66-year wait. Derek McInnes, a man who had already tasted notable success at Aberdeen and Kilmarnock, was appointed in May and the club’s already somewhat upward trajectory over the past few seasons has accelerated enormously. Lawrence Shankland, their star striker with 10 goals in 15 games in all competitions this season, has shaken off his slump from last season and now leads the country’s goalscoring charts.
While Claudio Braga, acquired from Norwegian side Aalesunds this summer, has 9 out of 16. Craig Halkett has become a cornerstone in his side’s defense after two injury-plagued campaigns. In the Edinburgh derby between Hearts and Hibernian, it was Helkett who won the match for his side with a back-post finish during stoppage time. Australian defensive midfielder Cameron Devlin has been an integral player in the midfield. Hearts has recently become a majority fan-owned football club, the largest of its kind in the British Isles, and the fans have full control over the shares, which come with voting rights. However, they are also part-owned (29% of the club) by Tony Bloom, the oft-celebrated Brighton owner, who owns significant shares in no fewer than four football clubs. Tony Bloom supported clubs known for their data-driven transfer approach, which is necessary to sustainably challenge the status quo. At the moment, Hearts are doing just that, and Bloom had openly claimed that Hearts “have a very good chance of at least finishing second.”
You know things are going bad when this qualified comment makes headlines while whispering a “bullish” endorsement of the club’s title. Hearts are head and shoulders above the rest of the competition this season, after a third of the regular season has been played. Yet such is the seriousness of the big two that, despite both being marred by poorly judged decisions in the boardroom and sub-par performances on the pitch, a second-place finish as a good chance for Hearts this season is being branded as a bold claim from which the manager himself has explicitly distanced himself. This is the part that makes the story seem less like a fairy tale and more like a sighing monologue. Football is and should be a game of skill.
While chance has always been part of the process, never in history have we seen clubs literally have to wait for the astronomically rare event where the status quo collapsed to have any significant chance of victory. David never defeats Goliath these days. If they’re lucky, every once in a while they’ll get a chance to take a look in the mirror while secretly wearing the crown while Goliath falls asleep. The crown returns to him as soon as he wakes up, and David’s fleeting glimpse of himself covered in gold for a precious moment is forever consigned to history, steeped in copious amounts of nostalgia and the consensus that it had all been one gigantic anomaly.
Rangers and Celtic are around twenty times richer than the league average and at least six times richer than the third richest club in the league. Between them they have 110 league titles in a total of 129 seasons. In a fine period between 1982 and 1985, three consecutive titles went to New Farm rivals Aberdeen and Dundee United. Since then, all titles have gone to the two Glasgow giants. And before 1982 you have to go back to the 1964/65 season to find a winner not called Celtic or Rangers. That’s 56 titles in the last 60 completed seasons, stacked by Old Farm rivals. Given the strength of Rangers and Celtic in the Scottish game, it’s only natural that at this point I would want to chat happily about Hearts’ brilliant season. But that joy will soon give way to the fear that such things are astronomically rare statistical anomalies in the current game.
Hearts are undefeated in the league this season. They have won 9 and drawn twice. They recently defeated Celtic in a very impressive performance. They had already beaten Rangers 2-0 at Ibrox Park in mid-September with a calm and confident performance. Hearts appear to be on course for a league title after a 66-year wait. Derek McInnes, a man who had already tasted notable success at Aberdeen and Kilmarnock, was appointed in May and the club’s already somewhat upward trajectory over the past few seasons has accelerated enormously. Lawrence Shankland, their star striker with 10 goals in 15 games in all competitions this season, has shaken off his slump from last season and now leads the country’s goalscoring charts.
While Claudio Braga, acquired from Norwegian side Aalesunds this summer, has 9 out of 16. Craig Halkett has become a cornerstone in his side’s defense after two injury-plagued campaigns. In the Edinburgh derby between Hearts and Hibernian, it was Helkett who won the match for his side with a back-post finish during stoppage time. Australian defensive midfielder Cameron Devlin has been an integral player in the midfield. Hearts has recently become a majority fan-owned football club, the largest of its kind in the British Isles, and the fans have full control over the shares, which come with voting rights. However, they are also part-owned (29% of the club) by Tony Bloom, the oft-celebrated Brighton owner, who owns significant shares in no fewer than four football clubs. Tony Bloom supported clubs known for their data-driven transfer approach, which is necessary to sustainably challenge the status quo. At the moment, Hearts are doing just that, and Bloom had openly claimed that Hearts “have a very good chance of at least finishing second.”
You know things are going bad when this qualified comment makes headlines while whispering a “bullish” endorsement of the club’s title. Hearts are head and shoulders above the rest of the competition this season, after a third of the regular season has been played. Yet such is the seriousness of the big two that, despite both being marred by poorly judged decisions in the boardroom and sub-par performances on the pitch, a second-place finish as a good chance for Hearts this season is being branded as a bold claim from which the manager himself has explicitly distanced himself. This is the part that makes the story seem less like a fairy tale and more like a sighing monologue. Football is and should be a game of skill.
While chance has always been part of the process, never in history have we seen clubs literally have to wait for the astronomically rare event where the status quo collapsed to have any significant chance of victory. David never defeats Goliath these days. If they’re lucky, every once in a while they’ll get a chance to take a look in the mirror while secretly wearing the crown while Goliath falls asleep. The crown returns to him as soon as he wakes up, and David’s fleeting glimpse of himself covered in gold for a precious moment is forever consigned to history, steeped in copious amounts of nostalgia and the consensus that it had all been one gigantic anomaly.
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