Hearts CEO Andrew McKinlay has offered an update on the deal with Brighton owner Tony Bloom – and admits he hopes it can help them break the Celtic and Rangers duopoly.
Bloom is in talks with Tynecastle chiefs over a deal which will see him invest money into the club but also allow them use of his data analytics companies when it comes to player and manager recruitment as well as opposition analysis.
Nothing is finalised yet but it is understood the discussions are at an advanced stage and the deal should go through. The businessman’s analytics have allowed the Seagulls to revolutionise their recruitment and make millions through player trading, and has done a similar job for his other team, Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium.
In fact, Union have gone from a second tier side to challenging for the top flight title and playing in Europe since his involvement.
McKinlay is hopeful it can do similar for the Jambos and feels it is actually the analytics over the money that can be the catalyst to potentially challenging the Old Firm and breaking their stranglehold on Scottish football.
Hearts hope analytics can help them challenge Celtic and Rangers
No side from outside of Glasgow has finished in the top two since Aberdeen when Rangers had just returned to the top flight. Before then, the last team to do it when Gers were in the league was the Jambos in 2005/06 with Vladimir Romanov’s investment.
Hearts finished comfortably third last season and would have been looking to push on this campaign. Despite their horror start, it is still a push towards the top two they are targeting with the use of the data algorithm.
“We are allowed to use analytics,” McKinlay said. “We are hoping to do something that can help us with the analytics from the first instance. There is chat about investment and that is more around FoH and others who hold shares. It’s exciting, it should be exciting and looking forward to having a bit more to say on it.
“The investment would be nice. I know there are numbers being talked about, but those numbers might be a bit wide of the mark. The investment is going to be great, it’s going to help, but it’s not the exciting bit of this. The exciting bit for me is access to the analytics. If you look at how analytics has been used at other clubs, and how successful it’s been at other clubs, you can’t help but be excited.
“When I first came into the club, we’d just been demoted. I remember saying I wanted to get us back to being the third force in Scotland. I got abuse because I wasn’t showing enough aspiration. I learned quickly. I’ve never said in an interview that we should be first or second. That’s always been on my mind.
“I’ve always struggled to think how you do that from a financial perspective. Unless something goes wrong with one of the other two, that’s a different thing. You’re constantly looking for something else that can allow you to close that gap because their finances are miles ahead.
“When analytics comes along as an opportunity, a chance to use it properly, we should get a standard of player that allows us to close that gap. And genuinely, hopefully at some point, challenge. Whether it’s in second place or maybe in time it would be lovely to be right up there.
“It would be brilliant for Scottish football. Whether it’s Hearts or someone else, we’re all dying to have more than two teams every year who can win the league. I see this as a genuine opportunity to do that.
“The analytics doesn’t just do recruitment. It can be very helpful with opposition analysis. We do a lot of that ourselves already. This adds another layer to these sorts of things.”
Hearts won’t be Brighton feeder club
McKinlay has already been clear that Hearts won’t become a feeder club for Brighton. He’s reiterated that, with the wishes of the Foundation of Hearts crucial.
“One of the crucial things is the Foundation,” he added. “They’ve been quite clear about their red lines for things that they wouldn’t want.
“What we won’t do is enter into anything which is a link up with another club or akin to a feeder. Which is why when individuals are talked about it’s not helpful because people then naturally think if an individual were linked to other clubs. The one thing I can say categorically is there are no links here to any other football club.”