Tony Bloom Hearts breakfast leaves Blair Spittal hungry to taste success with the bravado left for afters
Blair Spittal enjoyed a bite of breakfast with Hearts' new money man Tony Bloom on Tuesday.
And just a few minutes in the bullish Brighton owner's presence fuelled the playmaker's appetite for success in Gorgie.
Bloom has got Jambos salivating with his vow to disrupt the Old Firm dominance after investing £10m into the Tynecastle club.
At a fans' event last week the Englishman served up another helping of aggressive talk when he said he expects Hearts to be winning the Premiership and playing in the Champions League in a decade.
Spittal admits Derek McInnes ' players will leave the bravado to the new investor. But the 29-year-old reckons the billionaire is serious about getting his teeth into Scottish football after being blown away by a red hot Tynecastle as Hearts raised the Premiership curtain with a powerful 2-0 win over Aberdeen.
It means they sat top of the table after match day one having won all four of their Premier Sports Cup group games.. And Spittal says it's imperative they back it up with another big result against Dundee United this afternoon.
He said: 'He was in on Tuesday, he came into training so a couple of the boys met him at breakfast. It's nice to get a chat with him and get to meet the man.
'It was a short conversation that we had but I think even he was excited by the atmosphere on Monday night.
'There was a lot of build-up to the game but I think it might even have taken him by surprise how much everyone was up for it. You expect that going into the first game but it's important to back that up now.
'I said a number of times last year when you come to a club like this you want to be competing for competitions and obviously with the ambitions the club has we see it as an opportunity to do that.
'We got to a semi-final last year and we feel as though it was a missed opportunity but this year we want to go one better.
'We've had a good start to the season but we're not going to get caught up in what's been a good start so far.'
Bloom's no-nonsense approach has got fans dreaming. But Spittal knows it's crucial McInnes' troops stay grounded and leave the bold talk to the punters.
He said: 'We'll deal with matters on the pitch, that's all we can control. With the momentum that we've built up it's nice to have the noise from the fans and everyone get excited, we want that but at the same time we've got a job to do.
'It's what you expect coming to a club like this. We're an ambitious club, one of the biggest clubs in Scotland so you need to have that ambition.
'But the minute we take our eye off what we're doing on the pitch and listen to outside noise it can put you off your game so it was important that we put that to the side on Monday and I felt as though we'd done that really well.
'The atmosphere was incredible. It was a good first game for us, it was a chance to lay down a marker and I feel as though we've done that.
'We've got another tough game on Sunday coming up so we need to make sure we're ready for that.'
Spittal was just getting settled at Tynecastle this time last year after his move from Motherwell.
European football was on the horizon and while a Conference League campaign started with a bang and two wins over Dinamo Minsk and Omonia it quickly fizzled out - much like their domestic season.
It's United facing that gruelling Thursday-Sunday shift right now and having just returned from an exhausting 90 minutes in Vienna, Spittal is urging the Jambos to take advantage of any lethargy in his old side.
He said: 'Sunday's going to be a tough game. We had that last year with United as well but from our point of view we feel that if they had a tough game on Thursday it's something that we can hopefully exploit.
'It can (leave you fatigued) but players don't want to make excuses. I've been at Dundee United as well, the facilities and everything they've got up there is top drawer so we've got to make sure that we're ready for the best version of Dundee United on Sunday.'
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