4 days ago
'Hearts' challenge now is to compete with Old Firm'
Can Hearts live up to Tony Bloom's audacious claim they can vie for the title this season?New minority shareholder Bloom wants Hearts to be champions within 10 years, but former manager Robbie Neilson says the first aim is to challenge the established big on the BBC's Scottish football podcast, Neilson said: "It's now about competing against the Old Firm for Hearts. That's where I see them. They look the dominant third force."The question will be can they make the step to go beyond one of them, which is obviously with Tony Bloom coming in? That's what they're trying to do."But I think it will be very, very difficult over the course of a full season. "One of the big things about Hearts is momentum, especially when you're at Tynecastle. If you can build that momentum of winning games, which they have managed to do in the group stages of the League Cup, you then take that into the league."It's really there at the moment, but the first big question will be when the Old Firm come to town, can you turn them over?