6 days ago
Tony Bloom tells Celtic and Rangers their domination is over as Hearts money man reveals what disruption looks like
Tony Bloom has told Celtic and Rangers that their days of dominating Scottish football are OVER.
The Hearts money man vows he's here to upset the Scottish football applecart after ploughing £10million into the Tynecastle club.
The Jambos were already using Jamestown Analytics to turbo charge their summer recruitment - the same data analytics company Bloom uses at Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise - before he bought a 29 per cent stake in the capital club.
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And the gambling mastermind sent a bullish warning to the big two now that he's on the scene in Edinburgh, and it's that they should be ready for another runner to gate crash the two-horse race for the title.
"It's really important for Scottish football for it not to be a one or two club show," Bloom told fans at a Q&A event for Foundation of Hearts pledgers. "And it's not going to be from now on., I assure everyone of that.
"I welcome the investment from other clubs outside of the Old Firm. I think that's really good for Scottish football.
"It's not good at all that historically, Scottish clubs haven't been doing well in Europe, so it lowers the Scottish coefficient. That means even if you win the league like Celtic, they've got to win two knock-out games to actually get into the group games of the Champions League.
"I'm very confident that coefficient over the next few years will change, which would be really good for Scottish football. I really hope it will be really good news for Hearts.
"I'm really excited about the challenge and the days of it being a two runner race have gone."
Bloom is dead set on disrupting Scottish football and spelled out exactly what that means.
He added: "It means that the fans and the media are not talking about it being a two-runner race. As I said, that will not be the case from now on.
"Every game that Heart of Midlothian plays in, we will play to win. Every tournament that Hearts are in, we think we can win it and we're aiming to win it.
"I accept the fact that when we get in the Champions League, that may be a little bit difficult!
"But we have to have belief. We have to have belief in who we are, what we are, our head coach and our players and everyone at the football club.
"I certainly do, and I think that the squad of players that Graeme (Jones, sporting director) has helped put together under Derek McInnes, will continue to get stronger year on year, on year.
"It sounds like a success to me if Rangers and Celtic are knocking on Graeme's door wanting to buy our players.
"But they might not be able to buy our player as they may have bigger clubs to go to.
"I don't like to make predictions on one game or one season as there are so many variables.
"But what I would say is that Hearts have got an exceptionally good squad this season and I think there's every chance that we will have success this season.
"Not being in Europe this season gives Hearts an excellent chance in the league and perhaps in the cups as well.
"Hearts fans have every right to have big expectations and historically I don't think those expectations have been big enough.
"I know it's difficult and that the Old Firm have a huge advantage in terms of turnover, commercial deals and fan base, but that's all changing because we are going to have a squad to compete with the very best teams in Scotland."
