BY ANTHONY BROWN
Twenty games down, 18 to go. These are giddy times in Gorgie as the bullish proclamations of Tony Bloom five months ago start to look more profound with each passing week.
On the eve of Hearts' opening league match of the season against Aberdeen in early August, at a question and answer event in the Gorgie Suite, the Brighton owner fuelled the imagination of supporters with a string of bold, barely believable predictions about what the Edinburgh club were on course to do in the wake of investment from himself and, more pertinently, their partnership with Jamestown Analytics.
In short, for anyone living on the moon, Bloom declared that Hearts were ready to "disrupt" the established order of Scottish football and that they would soon be contending for the league title, a claim widely dismissed among many who cared little for the Englishman's proven track record with Brighton and Union Saint-Gilloise, among other fruitful business interests.
Scepticism was natural, nonetheless, for those of us - Hearts supporter or not - who have grown up in an era when only Celtic and Rangers have won the Scottish title across the past four decades. On the morning of the Aberdeen game, Bloom met a small group of journalists inside Tynecastle's main stand for further chat about his decision to get involved with the club.
Given that Celtic were seemingly the established top dogs in Scottish football at the time, and with no obvious indication of what was to come, I asked Bloom if he was totally comfortable with someone of Brendan Rodgers' stature reading his comments about how Hearts were effectively attempting to knock his side off their perch.
"I don't think Brendan's going to be too concerned about what I'm saying and I'm not sure he's going to be too concerned about Hearts right now," Bloom smiled, perhaps imagining that any toppling of Celtic might come further down the line once Rodgers had moved on. "But hopefully over the course of the season... it would be great for Scottish football if he is worried about Hearts."
Indeed he was. Within three months of those words, Rodgers was gone after being vanquished at Tynecastle, tendering his resignation the day after a meek 3-1 defeat in late October that left Celtic eight points adrift of Hearts at the summit.
When the Jambos wobbled slightly in a fortuitous 2-2 draw away to St Mirren in their following match, there was legitimate reason to wonder whether the bubble was about to burst and they would go the way of Jimmy Thelin's Aberdeen a year earlier. Even moreso after the demoralising concession of a late equaliser at home to Kilmarnock made it four games in a row without victory and allowed Celtic, temporarily resurgent under Martin O'Neill, to draw level with them in early December ahead of a formidable-looking four-game run against Celtic, Falkirk, Rangers and Hibs, with three of those matches away.
Yet here we are, heading towards mid-January, beyond the mid-point of the season, with Hearts having just been cast as bookmakers' favourites for the title. Not since May 1986 have they been viewed as the likeliest winners of the Scottish top flight. Even Bloom, although confident they could finish "at least second this season", cannot have envisaged them getting into such a commanding position this early. Asked at the aforementioned media briefing what odds he would offer on Hearts becoming champions within a decade, Bloom, a renowned sports gambler, said: "I won't talk out what the odds are but I'd just like to say that if we have not won the league title in the next 10 years I will be very disappointed."
Nobody, of course, can predict with any certainty how the remainder of the campaign will pan out, but whatever happens, this season will go down as one for the ages among Hearts supporters, recalled in 20 or 30 years as one of the greatest stories in European football - The Conquering of the 40-year Old Firm Duopoly - or another of those frustrating tales of what might have been, placed on the shelf somewhere alongside 1986, 1998 and 2006. While it is clearly still too early to be implying the title is Hearts' to lose, it is now reasonable to suggest that they would be entitled to feel a tinge of disappointment if they do not go on to seize this opportunity nobody outwith Bloom would have seen opening up for them.
Derek McInnes and his players have steadfastly refused to indulge in title talk, justifiably so given the obvious scope to have their noses rubbed in it if they lose their way in the coming months, although it has been clear to anyone paying close attention that there is belief within the squad that they can go the distance. There have been subliminal messages coming out of the dressing room along the lines of wanting to do "something special" this season. McInnes said after the recent win over Rangers that: "As the games go on, each game will hopefully become bigger. I want us to be relevant. I don't want us just to see out this season and think of what it could have been."
That is not the talk of a man who does not believe his team can win the title. One has to imagine he is drumming home a far more bullish message to his players behind closed doors than the watered-down version he offers in public. McInnes speaks pre and post-match with a calmness and a sense of authority that reflects the way his team have generally gone about their business this season. Watching them after matches, no matter how big the victory, the celebrations are generally relatively low-key. There are high-fives, hugs, smiles and applause for their supporters but there have been very few instances of wild on-field parties, which has been noteworthy given the magnitude of so many of their triumphs to date. Indeed after closing out a 1-0 victory over Livingston on Saturday, nobody in attendance would have been able to detect from the fairly muted reaction inside Tynecastle that they had just witnessed a team go into their best position - in terms of points advantage combined with depth into the season - in four decades. There is no sense that the players believe this is as good as it will get; they appear to mean business. Three points, up the road, and on to the next one.
Hearts initially moved top of the table on September 27 after a 3-0 home win over Falkirk coincided with Celtic being held to a 0-0 draw by Hibs, and they have remained there ever since, riding through all setbacks, dips in form and tests of resolve that have come their way. Whether they can continue to do so as the stakes increase with each passing week remains to be seen, but there is certainly little evidence of any impending demise for a side who have won four of their last five games.
Apart from the recent derby defeat, they have generally been sound defensively, their attackers are still carrying a considerable threat, and they now have Beni Baningime back alongside his trusty sidekick Cammy Devlin in the engine room after his injury-enforced absence coincided with their November blip. They also now possess a right-back who - on first viewing - looks the part in Jordi Altena, while Islam Chesnokov has arrived to add fresh thrust out wide and record signing Ageu, who showed glimpses of his quality away to Livingston in August before getting injured, is not far away from contention. There will, of course, be further signings, and the smart money is on them proving to be good ones, given the impact of the majority of those who have arrived since Jamestown came into play.
Naturally, the more pessimistic among the Hearts support will look along the M8, wary of what Celtic and Rangers may do over the coming weeks to try to spark a momentum shift.
Celtic have been in various degrees of turmoil since the start of the season, save for a few relatively harmonious weeks under O'Neill. Even if they change manager or spend several million pounds this month, it is hard to imagine them improving radically enough to go on the type of consistent winning run that has underpinned their many previous title triumphs.
Rangers, having won their last three matches including Saturday's derby at Celtic Park, appear better equipped than their city rivals at present to reel in Hearts. The improving vibe around Ibrox, allied to their spending power under their American owners, means they cannot be taken lightly. Equally, however, they have gone into the January window without a permanent sporting director to lead their transfer business and, apart from Saturday, have generally struggled to deal with big matches this season. For all that they appear to be edging in the right direction, they have won only five of their last 10 matches in all competitions and were well beaten at Tynecastle just a fortnight ago. Their next three away matches are at Aberdeen, Motherwell and Hibs. This is no longer an era where such games can be considered bankers for either of the Old Firm.
Given the many obstacles facing all three teams in the months ahead, the value of the six-point buffer Hearts possess at the time of writing should not be under-played. If Celtic or Rangers were currently six points clear, they would be viewed as near-certainties for the title. Both the Glasgow teams also have two European fixtures to negotiate before January is out, including a visit to Bologna for Celtic just a few nights before they return to Tynecastle later this month.
Hearts, of course, will have to deal with the weight of history if they are to maintain this challenge to a glorious end point. The pressure will intensify as the finish line comes closer, the attention and scrutiny from curious interlopers all over Britain and beyond will increase, and the anxiety levels of Hearts supporters - some of whom were in an overly antsy state in the second half against Livingston - are sure to get worse.
Crucially, up to this point at least, McInnes and his players have shown they can handle the heat for the most part. Apart from the recent derby, they have won almost every key game. In 1997-98, when Hearts were in title contention until mid-April, Jim Jefferies' brilliant Scottish Cup-winning side eventually finished seven points behind champions Celtic. Notably, they failed to win any of their eight league matches against either of the Old Firm. This time round, Hearts have won all four matches against Celtic and Rangers so far by an aggregate score of 9-3. The looming visit of Celtic and next month's trip to Ibrox should look nowhere near as daunting for this sure-footed Hearts team as might have been the case in previous years. If McInnes' team are to inflict any more direct blows on the Old Firm in their two remaining matches against them before the split, they are likely to solidify their position at the top, assuming they take care of the majority of the more winnable fixtures such as those coming up away to Dundee and at home to St Mirren.
Usually the Scottish Cup is deemed a priority for Hearts, but this might just be a season where McInnes would be advised to send out the fringe men, at least for the Falkirk tie, in order to ensure his big-hitters are as primed as possible for what is shaping up to be the most critical few months of their footballing lives.
Given the increasingly barmy nature of this campaign, where even swashbuckling Motherwell cannot be fully discounted from the reckoning, it is not beyond possibility that the title could be won with a points tally as low as the mid-70s. Hearts' highest total of the 38-game, three-points-for-a-win era was 74, in the 2005-06 season. They are currently on 44 points, with 54 points left to play for. Hypothetically, 12 wins and six defeats from their remaining 18 games, for instance, would see them on to 80 points. Such a tally would appear a tall order for Celtic or Rangers to match, with both on 38 points and yet to provide any evidence that they are currently a better or stronger team than Hearts, who boast the best home record, the best away record and comfortably the best goal difference in the league. There is an argument that they also have the best manager, certainly in the context of dealing with the unique demands and rigours of a Scottish Premiership campaign.
All of these words could yet look ridiculous if Hearts lose their way over the next month or two but the fact fact we are even talking in such terms is testament to the remarkable story unfolding in Gorgie. Who knows how it will end, but this is a period to cherish for all involved with Heart of Midlothian.
*Anthony Brown is an Edinburgh-based sports writer for Press Association and has written books on Hearts' 1998 and 2012 Scottish Cup triumphs, both available to purchase via the Products option at the top of this page.