Are the SMSM missing a trick when it comes to Tony Bloom’s potential investment in Hearts? Could they be the next team to split Celtic and the Ibrox side?

Last week, I wrote an extensive article on Celtic and Brendan Rodgers requiring a sterner challenge than the club has been getting of late.

In this article, I intimated that the challenge should come from Ibrox under their prospective new owners.

But I quite clearly stated that I took back that assertion on the last Trinity Tims podcast after what went on at Ibrox last weekend.

I said I was quite happy for us to continue winning treble after treble at the expense of the Ibrox club.

And I meant that.

So, discounting the Ibrox side, is there anywhere else we could expect a serious challenge from?

Well Aberdeen were the great pretenders for the first part of the season, weren’t they?

Until strangely, their challenge fell off a cliff after we taught them a footballing lesson at Hampden in the League Cup semi-final.

They have since recovered, and will no doubt, pose a sterner challenge to us in the upcoming Scottish Cup final.

But outside of Aberdeen, what is left?

It stands to reason that a challenge should come from the capital city.

But it has never materialised.

Not since 1986 has a club from Edinburgh taken us all the way to the last day of the season in a League title race.

We all like to commemorate Albert Kidd day, well, those of us of an older vintage anyway.

In the last couple of years, two big names have become involved with both Edinburgh clubs.

Bill Foley, owner of EPL side Bournemouth, and NHL side Vegas Golden Knights, recently invested £6 million to become a minor shareholder in Hibernian.

It’s clear that he wants to become more heavily involved with the Leith club.

But as yet, nothing further has happened.

Over in Gorgie, Tony Bloom, the majority owner of EPL side Brighton and Hove Albion, has offered to invest almost £10 million in Hearts.

In return for this investment, he wants to become the majority shareholder at the club.

His offer would buy him a 29% stake in the Edinburgh club.

While Foley’s investment at Hibs is more low key, what isn’t, is the progress they’ve made on the pitch under David Gray this season.

They look the most likely side to finish third this season, barring a late surge from Aberdeen and a collapse from them.

We’ll see just how good they are tomorrow at Celtic Park.

As for Hearts, the Neil Critchley experiment was a dismal failure.

The Tynecastle side sits in 8th place in the table after a poor outing this season.

Are they a side that flatters to deceive?

Or are they really just that poor?

It’s hard to know for sure, but Tony Bloom’s interest, if taken seriously, may spell brighter days ahead for them.

The big question here though is, will the Hearts fans vote in favour of Bloom becoming a majority shareholder, thus accepting the £10 million investment he is offering?

In just over a fortnight, they will be asked to vote on this.

Here, the Edinburgh Evening News picks up on Bloom’s proposal:

Nineteen days from now, when voting begins for Hearts fans to approve or reject Tony Bloom’s £9.86m investment proposal, a sliding doors moment will arrive in Gorgie. Either a majority of Foundation of Hearts’ 8,000-plus members will agree to hand 29 per cent of their club’s shareholding to the multi-millionaire businessman with access to unrivalled footballing expertise, or they will send him packing in an act of utter madness. There is no second chance.

You somehow get the feeling they won’t be so foolish as to send him packing.

Hearts fans know their club needs a change of direction.

It’s been drifting aimlessly for years now, incapable of living up to the levels a club of it’s size should be aiming for.

While the media fawns and drools over the BIG takeover at Ibrox, something altogether more serious could be happening in Edinburgh.

I say serious, because Hearts are a club that lives within their means, and their fans own the club, unlike the Ibrox operation.

And unlike the Ibrox operation, they are not mired in tens of millions worth of debt.

There is as yet, uncapped potential in that club, all they need is someone like Bloom to uncap it.

But he won’t be allowed to do that unless the fans permit it.

The difference is that Hearts fans can vote on whether they wish to sell the soul of their club, or not.

They have a choice.

At Ibrox, their fans are presenting their club as a sacrificial lamb at the altar, no questions asked.

They have no idea of what’s coming down the tracks, simply because they won’t ask any questions about what’s coming down the tracks.

Same as they asked no questions about Craig Whyte.

But the Celtic Bloggers did, and look at what happened?

The Ibrox fans have no idea what Andrew Cavenagh is really bringing to the table.

Other than this vague assurance from the glib and shameless liar:

It was only after they’d satisfied me through their bankers. I’m not going to disclose the figure but the amount of money was very, very substantial.

It was the amount of money I thought was needed not only to get this deal done, but to fund the club for the next two years and to bridge what I see to be the gap between us and our competition at the moment.

Once they provided the proof of funds, we then started serious negotiations with other shareholders and directors to see if they could package something that would allow them to come in and take control.

Tony Bloom on the other hand is an open book when it comes to his bank balance.

As described here in the Edinburgh News article:

Hearts are already in partnership with Jamestown Analytics, the cutting-edge data analysis firm which is an offspring of Bloom’s Starlizard sports gambling company. In addition to that arrangement, having the 55-year-old as a minority shareholder at Tynecastle is simply a no-brainer which most supporters seem to recognise. It would be a huge surprise if the FoH majority required [more than 50 per cent] to approve Bloom’s investment was not granted.

For anyone swithering, it is worth analysing the other clubs where Bloom is involved. He is a gambler to trade, nicknamed “The Lizard”, and knows a sure thing when it emerges. Hence a reported fortune exceeding £700m. He considers Hearts untapped potential – a club capable of challenging Scottish football’s Glasgow duopoly with the appropriate resources, insight and guidance. This deal is worth so much more than £9.86m. It is an opportunity for Heart of Midlothian FC to potentially grow beyond anyone’s expectations.

The key take out from that section of the article is where Bloom considers Hearts as “untapped potential”.

Every aspect of the Ibrox club’s potential has been tapped.

Which is what makes Cavenagh’s interest in that club all the more baffling.

If Bloom uses his substantial fortune to tap into Hearts, then the Tynecastle side could become a serious force in the Scottish game.

In reality, there is more chance of them doing that than the Ibrox side.

Simply because there is actually so much untapped potential there.

Now, we know if Hearts were to grow in stature, then the diet Huns as they’re fondly known by our fans, would become slightly more than a diet version.

They could become a full fat version like their Ibrox cousins.

Whether that would be a good thing for the Scottish game or not remains to be seen.

However, there is no doubting the Scottish game needs another force outside of Glasgow.

If Hearts get their act together and allow Bloom to invest in the club, then who knows?

Bill Foley might decide he wants to do the same at Hibernian?

You can’t dismiss the rivalry between the two Edinburgh clubs, and I’m sure there’s no way Hibs would want their bitterest rivals stealing a march on them either.

Then Dave Cormack at Aberdeen might decide he needs his side to be taken more seriously.

If this vote goes through on the 26th of May, the ripple effect it causes may be the best thing that has happened to the Scottish game in years.

God knows, the game is dire need of an awakening.

The media are so focused on the Ibrox fairytale, they might just be missing out on a real story in Edinburgh.

Tony Bloom hasn’t just succeeded at Brighton and Hove Albion, he has also injected life into several other clubs.

Hearts already use Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics, described earlier in the segment from the Edinburgh Evening News article.

This benefits of this are described further on on the article:

Bloom’s impact at other clubs, aided by Jamestown’s recruitment software, highlights his capability to do what he does best: Identify an underperforming entity, take a calculated risk, invest, restructure where necessary, recruit players and then sell them for profit to reinvest. And so the wheel keeps turning, inevitably leading to on-field progress. He is a man who seemingly breeds success wherever he goes. See English Premier League side Brighton and Hove Albion, Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium [probably the club closest to Hearts in stature, see below], Como in Italy’s Serie A, and Spanish side Castellon. Not forgetting another EPL club, Ipswich Town.

This seems like a win/win for Hearts if you ask me.

It also seems like it’s the real deal.

Something far more tangible than the pie in the sky being described in relation to Ibrox.

It’s happening this month.

It isn’t happening this month.

It’s 90% of the way there, so it’s definitely going to happen.

And so on, and so on.

Put simply, Hearts fans will vote on whehter they wish to make Tony Bloom a 29% shareholder on the 26th of May.

No bullshit, no vague timelines, and no guessing games.

If they do, he’ll invest £10 million in their club.

After that, he’ll be in a position to grow the Heart of Midlothian FC brand.

His track record with all of the other clubs he’s invested in to date, well, it suggests he’ll do exactly that.

While the SMSM loses itself in the Ibrox fantasy, Tony Bloom could be stealing a march on them.

That challenge we Celtic fans are looking for?

It might just come from Edinburgh, and not Govan.

I guess time will tell…