For Hearts fans of a certain vintage, giddiness typically comes with a caveat or two.
In 1964-65, Hearts were top by two points heading into the final day. In 1985-86 they again went into the final weekend of the season top of the table after going 27 games in a row without losing. In 2005-06 they were unbeaten table-toppers after 10 matches under George Burley.
There was also the time former owner Vladimir Romanov boldly claimed Hearts could go on to win the Champions League in the next five years after taking over in 2005. All would prove false dawns.
In 1965, they lost the title on goal average to Kilmarnock. The team that faced Dundee at Dens Park in 1986 went down 2-0 and agonisingly lost the league title on goal difference to Celtic. Burley’s boys were flying high after eight wins from 10 when he was dramatically sacked in 2005. In the Romanov era they did indeed make it into the Champions League in 2006, but only as far as the third qualifying round – where they were soundly beaten 5-1 on aggregate by AEK Athens.
Now, 11 games into the Scottish Premiership season, Hearts are top of the table after nine wins from 11, nine points clear, with chaos the currency at Celtic and Rangers right now with both having already changed their managers.
Their lead over second-placed Celtic is their largest in the top flight since the 1957-58 season, and given they kick off against Dundee United an hour before their title rivals host Kilmarnock on Sunday, it could be 12 for at least a brief while. Hearts fans are daring to dream, even while history is screaming at them to be wary.
Eleven games into the Scottish Premiership season, Hearts are top of the table with nine wins from 11, nine points clear of Celtic
But they’ve been here before and seen it all fall away – in 2005 they were unbeaten in their first 10 games but could not get over the line
Their one brief foray into the Champions League the following year ended quickly when AEK Athens dumped them out in the third qualifying round, with Bruno Aguiar (right) sent off
‘Excitement levels are through the roof,’ Andrew Donaldson, host of the Scarves Around the Funnel podcast, tells us.
‘The mood has changed greatly in the past 12 weeks, never mind the past 12 months! One year ago, we were bottom of the Scottish Premiership with just two points from eight league games and had just sacked Steven Naismith…’
Derek McInnes is the latest man tasked with overthrowing the Old Firm, who have combined to win the last 40 league titles between them. Twenty-eight men got their shot before him, all trying to emulate the great Tommy Walker’s legendary championship team of 65 years ago, all falling painfully short.
Chief executive Andrew McKinlay knows just how fast things can change. It was he who found himself in the eye of the storm earlier this year as fans chanted for him to leave the club. Now he’s entertaining conversations about their title prospects and a future featuring the Champions League anthem.
McKinlay is still getting some flak, however. In the moments after Hearts knocked off Celtic at Tynecastle to go eight points clear two weeks ago, new minority investor Tony Bloom found himself dancing in the aisles. Sporting director Graeme Jones was stood alongside bellowing out Hearts’ anthem, while McKinlay coolly applauded McInnes and the players off.
‘I got a bit of criticism from friends!’ McKinlay tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘Graeme was singing, Tony was dancing and I was clapping like I was at my nannie’s funeral. That wasn’t how I was feeling inside!
‘You’re trying to keep it real, I guess. I don’t know how my emotions will be if we’re in this position with five games to go, I’ve no idea. That would be a lovely place to be.’
Brighton owner Bloom has been a real point of fascination ever since he vowed to come in like a wrecking ball and shake-up Scottish football.
New minority owner Tony Bloom has been a real point of fascination ever since he vowed to come in like a wrecking ball and shake-up Scottish football
They were dancing in the aisles at Tynecastle last month when Lawrence Shankland’s penalty helped defeat Celtic 3-1 and really stamp Hearts’ mark on the title race
Shankland (right) is the top scorer in Scotland, closely followed by team-mate Claudio Braga
The 55-year-old gambling entrepreneur sat down in front of the Foundation of Hearts – a body of 8,000 fans who pump in £150,000 a month in subscription fees – over the summer to make his case to buy a stake.
That compelling pitch, according to some of those in attendance, ‘went down a storm’ as he vowed Hearts would win the title in 10 years. His £9.86million purchase for 25 per cent of non-voting shares was passed with a 98 per cent majority.
While Bloom, who first expressed interest in Hearts back in 2023, may not hold voting rights, his biggest gift to the club has been helping them gain exclusive use of Jamestown Analytics across Scottish football. The world-renowned analytics tool, while not directly owned by Bloom, is an offshoot of his Starlizard business.
It has caught Celtic and Rangers on the hop as Hearts filled their squad with gems from relative obscurity across the continent, following the model of Bloom’s other clubs.
Brighton have unearthed the likes of Moises Caicedo, whom they sold to Chelsea for £115m, or £111m more than they paid Ecuadorian side Independiente del Valle for him. At Union Saint-Gilloise, the Belgian team Bloom took from the third tier to champions last season for the first time in 90 years, it is routine to flip players for huge profits. This summer they sold Noah Sadiki to Sunderland for £17.7m, having signed him for £1.2m.
‘The level of detail is incredible,’ a source familiar with Jameson explains. ‘It goes right down to who taught them at school.’
Claudio Braga, a striker who has gone viral after a chant in his name to the tune of Queen’s Radio Ga Ga racked up millions of views on social media, was plucked from the Norwegian second tier. He is the second top scorer in Scottish football, only behind team-mate Lawrence Shankland.
Alexandros Kyziridis, a thrilling Greek winger, has been transformative since arriving from MFK Zemplin Michalovce in Slovakia.
Alexandros Kyziridis, a thrilling Greek winger who was playing in Slovakia before Hearts spotted him, fires in to give them the lead over Celtic
Islam Chesnokov, a Kazakh international, will arrive in January from Tobol in his homeland
The analytics are so convincing that Hearts paid more than £1m for a player for the first time in the last window, picking up Brazilian midfielder Eduardo Ageu from Santa Clara in the Portuguese top flight. Harry Milne, who was at Partick Thistle, and Oisin McEntee, then playing at Walsall, scored highly on the analytics tool, too, and have been smart pick-ups.
Islam Chesnokov is also generating a lot of buzz ahead of his January arrival from Kazakh side FC Tobol. The bad news for Hearts’ rivals is that the Jamestown well is far from running dry.
‘Now we’ve got a team not scarred by losing against Celtic or Rangers,’ says one Hearts source. ‘They don’t know the history of Scottish football, where some are beat before the whistle goes. These guys aren’t.’
The feeling inside Hearts is that for all of their early successes via analytics, the system is designed to get better year on year.
‘People might say “this is the only season you can do it, because Celtic and Rangers aren’t good” but I think people haven’t realised quite yet that with the analytics, we will get better and better,’ McKinlay says. ‘It’s not this season or no season. Fans should definitely enjoy it.’
Braga is taking a bath while team-mates pass round slices of Papa John’s pizza after an icy cold night in Paisley.
It was his goal away to St Mirren – a banana skin game for Hearts, who have now won just three of their last 16 league games away to the Buddies following last week’s 2-2 draw – that maintained the club’s unbeaten start.
For most of the night it was his name ringing out of the away end in a chant that originated on a WhatsApp voice note while one fan took his lunch break at work.
Braga’s header at St Mirren last week rescued a point and kept Heart’s unbeaten start to the season alive
Hearts thumped Dundee 4-0 last weekend to go nine clear at the top of the table
‘Having a chant for myself is something I never thought about!’ Braga tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘Before I came here I didn’t expect it but now I have it, it’s amazing.’
Braga has been studying Hearts for a while, wanting to make the move for almost a year before he finally swapped second-tier Norwegian side Aalesunds FK for Edinburgh in the summer.
Now he wants to be a history-maker as well as a surprise package.
‘The enthusiasm right now is really good around the city,’ he says. ‘Scotland deserves that, I think. The league is so competitive but people on the outside only see some teams winning it and they think it’s not competitive.
‘But there are a lot of good teams in Scotland. I feel like it’s really good to have that competition here.’
McInnes is the key to it all, a character that can often say so much by not saying much at all.
‘There is a respect, an authority, when he walks into the dressing room,’ one source close to the team says. ‘He has them climbing the walls ready to go.’
In the summer McInnes made it plain to players such as centre half Craig Halkett that they needed to get fitter to be a key piece of the title-winning puzzle he is trying to build. Weight lost, Halkett is playing some of the best football of his career. Many others have followed suit.
Manager Derek McInnes is the key to it all, a character that can often say so much by not saying much at all
McInnes made it plain to players such as Craig Halkett that they needed to get fitter to be a key piece of the title-winning puzzle. Now, Halkett is playing some of the best football of his career
Head to the Tynecastle Arms on the corner of Gorgie Road and beyond the burgundy booths and the black-and-white photos of historic teams immortalised on the wall, there’s a blackboard with a message on it.
‘There is no other club like Hearts,’ it reads. ‘We don’t have players, we have heroes. We don’t have a stadium. We have a fortress. We don’t have fans. We have the heart and soul of Edinburgh. This is a dynasty that will live on for eternity.’
Walker and his players are legends that will never be airbrushed out of Scottish football folklore. Neither will Hearts’ championship-winning side of 1958, which scored 132 goals in 34 league games.
Runners-up five times in the 65-year drought since Walker’s side touched the summit, and now McInnes is out to prove this current crop, filled with hidden gems unearthed through analytics, are not destined to be another false dawn.
Now it’s time for another team to become heroes.
