Hearts are here to stay as Scotland's compass is tugged in three directions

Kevin McCarra at Celtic Park
Monday October 17, 2005
The Guardian

The compass has been smashed and no one can be sure where the Scottish Premierleague season is going. For the first time since Sir Alex Ferguson left Aberdeen for Manchester United in 1986, neither member of the Old Firm looks sure to lead the way. There are just 10 games gone but so far it is Hearts who are striding ahead.

Their visit to Celtic Park was noteworthy not just for the extension of an unbeaten record, but because the players acted as if they expected nothing less of themselves. The psychology of Scottish football has been shifting for months.

The Hearts manager George Burley veers between downplaying the significance of autumn form and dropping hints that a potent side is emerging. "To go 10 games undefeated in any league is tremendous," he said. They started Saturday's game with a forceful confidence that Celtic could not match for a while.

An unlikely project is having an impressive effect. Vladimir Romanov, the owner of Hearts, has often decided which players to sign and that type of meddlesome behaviour normally undermines a manager, but Burley, whatever his true feelings, has made it work.

The array of newcomers who have been bought or borrowed are unperturbed by the Old Firm and the Scots are buoyed up by the influx of talent. The economic instability across much of European football means that wheeling and dealing can secure such internationals as Panagiotis Fyssas, the Greece left-back, and Rudi Skacel, the Czech midfielder.

The latter, a frequent scorer, equalised just three minutes after Celtic had taken a first-half lead. Paul Telfer made a rash decision to let the ball run through to Artur Boruc when he should have cleared for a throw-in. Skacel pursued hard and, with the Poland goalkeeper failing to gather cleanly, he challenged, scrambled back to his feet and knocked the loose ball into the net. Boruc, on loan to Celtic from Legia Warsaw for the season, has received an offer to sign for Arsenal next summer and whether or not he departs he will have a tight grip on a lucrative future. His handling was less secure on Saturday but he has been one of the successes in Gordon Strachan's rebuilding of Celtic.

The crowd, by and large, is reserving judgment on the new manager. He could not provide the win on Saturday that would have sent Celtic to the top of the table, has lost his one Old Firm match and led the club to the worst result in their European history to Artmedia Bratislava in the Champions League qualifiers. There is, all the same, a degree of goodwill towards Strachan.

The contrast with Martin O'Neill is absolute as he personally directs training and favours a close-passing style. Aesthetics, however, are not paramount. Strachan knows he is trying to live up to a predecessor who built the juggernaut that won 25 consecutive Scottish Premierleague games in 2003-04.

He has radically altered the line-up while still aiming to keep faith in the veterans closely associated with O'Neill. He brought back Neil Lennon and Alan Thompson on Saturday, after suspension and injury respectively, only to discover that neither was in the condition to deal with a relentless Hearts side driven on in midfield by Paul Hartley.

None the less, there is promise in Strachan's young players. Craig Beattie, putting Celtic in front after 13 minutes, was lucky in the deflection off Julien Brellier that helped his shot into the net, but had created space for himself with guile. While other opportunities were missed by both sides, Hearts were flintier and Skacel was convincing when he explained that the 60,000 crowd was an irrelevance to him after spells with Marseille and Panathinaikos.

He also said he would be happy to remain with the Edinburgh club if they clinched one of the two qualification places for the Champions League. It is not out of the question that Hearts, who are to give a trial to the former Bolton striker Fredi Bobic this week, will call his bluff.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer