Lads (and lass!),
Here's a draft copy of an article, which quotes an NI Hibs member, from the website
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'Stu in Nottingham' very kindly helped us out by doing the interview as I was too busy biting my fingernails off about the wedding!:
Can Burley’s boys break Old Firm Hearts?
Runaway SPL leaders Hearts have blown away the opposition so far this season but they face their toughest test to date as they entertain the champions Rangers.
George Burley’s men have won seven out of seven, sit five points clear of their nearest challengers Celtic, eight points clear of Rangers, and seemingly do not know the meaning of the word defeat.
It’s been 10 years since one half of the Old Firm finished outside the top two spots and 20 years since Aberdeen became the last team outside of Glasgow to win the title.
So with Hearts making an awesome start and Rangers and Celtic struggling to reach their recent high standards the burning question is, are Hearts the side to finally break the duopoly of Scottish football?
James Prentice, a loyal Rangers fan and Squarefootball writer, is full of praise for the shock SPL leaders but believes that eventually the Tynecastle club will fall by the wayside.
“Hearts deserve great credit for a solid start to the season and their fans will quite rightly be doing backflips around Gorgie as we speak. They have an intelligent manager and a chairman who is putting vast sums of money up for they quality of players that only the Old Firm could afford, not to mention some of Scotland's best young talent such as Craig Gordon and Paul Hartley, who could quite conceivably develop into world-class players.
“Despite their excellent start, Hearts do not have strength or depth to their squad that the Old Firm do and similarly do not have the solid base that Rangers and Celtic do – If Romanov left Tynecastle suddenly the whole new regime could crash down on Hearts. It will be interesting to see how Hearts fare against the Old Firm and how they will cope with the injuries and suspensions that will inevitably come their way.
“My own view is that Hearts will crack eventually but will almost certainly finish in at least third place in the SPL. I believe that as the season winds on they will drop points and will no be as consistent as Rangers or Celtic.”
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At the start of the season George Burley’s main objective at Tynecastle was to get Hearts back into Europe. Seven games in though and the expectation from the fans has soared and why not. Normally at this point in the season it’s either Rangers or Celtic topping the table with a huge gap already over the rest. The Jambos have come out of the blocks firing on all cylinders, crushing everything in sight. They stated their intentions early on with a 4-0 thrashing of Edinburgh rivals Hibernian and a 2-0 home win over Aberdeen, who were the two most promising sides of last season.
Lithuanian owner Vladimir Romanov has injected money into the club and Burley has spent wisely and some of his loan deals have been inspirational. Rudi Skacel has come in from Marseille and been a breath of fresh air. Seven goals in seven games for the Lithuanian midfielder is a record that most strikers would be envious of. However, despite the huge amount of foreigners at the club Burley’s side is built on a solid base of homegrown talent. Craig Gordon is only 23 but already the talented goalkeeper has 10 international caps to his name. Steven Pressley and Andy Webster have forged one of the games best defensive partnerships and in Paul Hartley they have the combative machine who is no stranger to where the goals are either.
Derek Watson though, secretary of the Heart of Midlothian Supporters Trust, isn’t getting too carried away by the Jambos fantastic start just yet.
“The start has been excellent and there is hope that we can sustain this but there is a long way to go. If we qualify for Europe the initial objective will have been achieved but I believe our supporters are now looking for more than this.
“George Burley has said the main aim for the season is to qualify for Europe but I believe that it may be possible for Hearts to split them this season if we have a bit of luck with injuries and suspensions. Celtic are a team in transition as Martin O’Neil had stuck with the same squad over the last few years and I feel Gordon Strachan may take time to build a new side. Rangers on the other hand will have one eye on the Champions League and have already lost to Aberdeen and Hibs following their final qualifying round ties. If both clubs have difficulties it may be possible for someone else to win the SPL. However if there is still a serious challenge to the Old Firm at the end of the year I could see them making significant signings in the January transfer window despite their aim to control finances.”
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So is it a case of the chasing pack improving or the Old Firm letting their standards slip? Hearts fan Derek Watson, who hopes that they can sustain their challenge and win one of the cups, believes that it is a mixture of the two.
”Rangers and Celtic both realise that they cannot afford to continue spending the high amounts they have been on transfer fees and players wages. This is why Celtic could not sign Craig Bellamy. We will therefore have a situation where the Old Firm will not be able to attract the standard of European or English players they have in the past. The clubs below them must also watch their budgets but by having scouting networks throughout Europe they can attract quality players at affordable rates. They have also been more active in bringing through their own younger players and hopefully this will pay off for them.”
This sentiment is echoed by Hibernian fan (Stu in Nottingham), a member of the Northern Ireland Hibernian Supporters Club.
“The calibre of players being signed by the old firm has dropped hugely - especially when judged on their ability to perform well in Europe where mostly they are an abject failure. With those clubs being tens of millions in debt these days they tend to cast their net within the SPL for bargain buys which will only buy them (relative) success within Scotland.”
“Speaking of my own club Hibs I'd say the most valid reason for this change of attitude is within the players themselves rather any outside influence. Hibernian have a very talented group of young lads who have come through the ranks together and don't appear to show any fear, nor least more respect than is due to the Glasgow pair (or anyone indeed).”
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Rangers fan James Prentice is starting to sense that the invincibility the Ibrox support once possessed in abundance is starting to slip.
“There has been a different spirit about Rangers after the Walter Smith era and the end of the 10-in-a-row dream – something has changed and I don't think that the club and supporters believe so much that they are 'Simply the Best', as the Ibrox anthem goes.
It is harder to define Celtic's position in all of this, but I think that in terms of both clubs the Scottish media has played a large part. Not only are they generally over hyped, journalists have lambasted non-Old Firm clubs for so long that they have recovered from their inferiority complex and no longer see a reason to fear the Old Firm. Also, there have been a sprinkling of young managers such as Terry Butcher, Jimmy Calderwood and Tony Mowbray who have breathed new life into their clubs and have brought on some prodigious talents.”
Despite that there is still a huge gap between the Glasgow giants and the chasing pack. For all of Aberdeen and Hibernian’s impressive performances last season they still finished a whopping 31 points behind the champions Rangers. And it’s that statistic that convinces Ian Will that the Old Firm will still march to an untouchable lead.
“To suggest that a non-Old Firm team will be up there at the death is purely paper talk, no team will be within 25 points of the Old Firm come the end of the season... no matter how much spin the papers try to suck people in.”
Scottish football has long suffered from the media’s inability to see beyond the Old Firm and continually running down the standard of the game north of the border. However with the English Premiership appearing to be a one-horse race with Chelsea seemingly unstoppable Scottish fans can breathe a sigh of relief as Hearts ensure that the destination of the SPL title has not already been decided.
Fans have waited a long time to see a force capable of challenging the Old Firm on a regular basis and this Hearts side look like they may have the credentials to satisfy the games needs. Derek Watson, like the rest of the SPL fans, would be delighted to see the Old Firm’s dominance ended.
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George Burley has set his stall out for the season and if the Jambos can see off Rangers on Saturday before travelling to Parkhead in October and continue this rich vein of form, it won’t just be Hearts supporters celebrating come May.