Andrew McKinlay insists basement side Hearts can achieve the impossible dream of winning the Premiership with the help of Tony Bloom’s analytics company.
The Tynecastle CEO made the ambitious claim as he spoke about the new exciting link up with Jamestown at yesterday’s AGM. And McKinlay is adamant that having access to the Brighton owner’s sought-after data can help Hearts bridge the financial gap on traditional powerhouses Celtic and Rangers at the summit. McKinlay, who told shareholders that the partnership was ‘game-changing’ and could take Hearts to the ‘next level’, said: “He said: “Game changing to me in that context to me is a genuine opportunity to compete with the teams above us in Scotland.
“Could we challenge for the title? I do think that. When I first came into the club I said I wanted to get back to being the third best team in Scotland and that I was criticised for showing a lack of ambition. And the reason I had that view was maybe it was my background, my head led my heart and I just felt the financial disparity is just almost impossible.
“In the same way as you look at Celtic and the Champions League. We’ve all got our levels in the game and it tends to follow finances. But then you look, so what else can we do? What can we do to challenge those top two teams? And when you look around, there’s various examples in Europe, not just Jamestown but others. Jamestown are probably the real gold standard of this example and they’ve shown that by what they’ve done at other clubs. Union Saint Gilloise is probably the best one for people to go away and look at in Belgium.”
Becoming league champions for the first time since 1960 is surely a pipe dream to some Hearts fans just now with the team currently bottom of the table after 15 games. And McKinlay knows it will take time for Jamestown to work their wonders.
He added: “I can’t put a timescale on it, but Jamestown have put their money where their mouth in the way that they construct their contracts. They are highly incentivised for us to do well and they’re excited, they’re very excited about what they think we could achieve. Finishing second, I want to do that on the basis that we’ve been good, not on the basis that maybe one of the other teams above us have been bad.
“And then genuinely, and that’s not going to happen overnight, but genuinely I think with the use of their technology, using our finances wisely, being as smart as we can be, I genuinely think we could challenge in Scotland.”