Tony Bloom has doubled down on his assertion that Hearts can become Scottish champions within ten years.
The Brighton chairman completed an investment with almost £10million in the Gorgie club a year back and instantly pledged to “disrupt the pattern of domination of Scottish football”.
At their first attempt on his watch, Hearts – the only team in Scotland with access to Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics company – came within three minutes of a first top-flight title since 1960 when Celtic came from a goal down to win 3-1 on the final day.
On Sunday, the two teams meet again at Parkhead for the first time since the title decider with Hearts, now led by Wouter Vrancken, threatening to challenge the Old Firm again.
‘The way it (last season) ended, in difficult circumstances from a Hearts point of view, is exceptionally disappointing for the club and for me as well,” Bloom told Sky Sports.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to accept what’s happened, if not be happy about how things ended”.
Tony Bloom has invested in Hearts and expects the Gorgie club to win the league in 10 years
Claudio Braga scored in Hearts’ impressive 5-0 win over St Mirren at the weekend
When asked if he retains his view that Hearts will become the first non-Old Firm side to win the top-flight title since 1985, he added: “Absolutely. I’d be really disappointed if Hearts have not won the Scottish Premiership within the 10 years.”
In the weeks that followed that painful defeat to Celtic, Hearts lost head coach Derek McInnes, captain Lawrence Shankland and midfielder Cammy Devlin to Rangers, while other key players like Alexandros Kyziridis and Alexander Schwolow also moved on.
Leaning on Jamestown Analytics, though, Vrancken was appointed from Belgian side Sint-Truiden with the squad refreshed by the arrivals of players including the likes of Calvin Miller, Malachi Fagan-Walcott and Beau Reus.
A tough start to the season saw the club lose their Champions League and Europa League qualifiers to Sturm Graz and Benfica, respectively, plus their Premiership opener to Aberdeen.
However, having famously beaten Rapid Vienna, Hearts are now in the Conference League, have progressed to the League Cup semi-final with Hibs and have moved up to third in the Premiership, three points adrift of Rangers and two further back from Celtic.
“We move on to this season,’ added Bloom. ‘We’ve started reasonably well, got a new head coach, so again we’ve got to be hopeful and optimistic for the season to come.
“It was really difficult with the head coach coming in literally just before the start of pre-season, but as a football club you have to recover, and you have to recover quickly. I think we have done.
“We’ve brought in a lot of new players, and there’s a lot to play for in the season for Hearts, so I think there’s a lot for the Hearts fans to look forward to this season.”
