Before a ball had even been kicked this season, Tony Bloom laid out his vision for Hearts after an investment of £9.86million had seen him acquire a 29-per-cent stake in the club.
‘If we have not won the league title within the next 10 years, I will be very disappointed,’ said Bloom, pointing to the way in which his Jamestown Analytics firm helped Union Saint-Gilloise win the league in Belgium.
The plan was clear. Bloom was coming in to disrupt the natural order of Scottish football and to shatter the duopoly of the Old Firm.
Yet, even in his wildest dreams, he surely could not have envisaged a scenario such as this, with Hearts now sitting top of the table and six points clear at Christmas.
They are massively ahead of schedule, profiting from the perfect storm around them as both Celtic and Rangers continue to falter.
The 2-1 win over Rangers at Tynecastle on Sunday means that Hearts have now beaten both halves of the Old Firm home and away in the same season for the first time since 1960.
Alexandros Kyziridis (left) and Claudio Braga celebrate Hearts’ opening goal against Rangers
Derek McInnes has put together a strong squad at Tynecastle and doesn’t need to make wholesale changes in the coming transfer window
For those who believe in such omens, that was also the last time that Hearts won the league. Derek McInnes pointed out afterwards that his team are not top purely via the malaise suffered by those around them.
Having lost only once in 18 matches, amassing 41 points along the way, Hearts are setting a pace that would be challenging at the top of the league in any given season.
McInnes also stressed the need for his team to continue to find ways of improving – and that will apply on and off the pitch if they are to sustain this challenge over the second half of the season.
Given what is at stake, it is legitimate to view the upcoming January transfer window as the most important and most consequential in the history of Scottish football.
For 40 years, the Scottish Premiership has been a closed shop, with Celtic and Rangers hoarding titles amid financial disparities that stifled ambition elsewhere.
No team outside Glasgow has lifted the trophy since Aberdeen in 1985. Hearts’ last title came in an era of black-and-white television, two years before the Beatles had even released their first single.
Now, with Hearts poised to shatter that duopoly, the mid-season market becomes a chance for them to strengthen in their bid to make history.
Hearts’ victory over Rangers left the Ibrox club 12 points behind them in the title race
Football can be the most capricious of pursuits. McInnes knows how quickly things can change and twist on the axis of one transfer window.
From his time at Aberdeen, he knows that Celtic can often loosen the purse strings in January if there is a title challenge from elsewhere.
Yet, backed by Bloom’s resources and the Jamestown analytics network, this is now an opportunity which has presented itself far sooner than he could ever have imagined. Hearts must grasp it.
They are also boosted by the fact that they already have the best team in the league. Whatever work they do in January will only be to tweak one or two positions, add extra depth and quality if they can.
They have already secured the pre-contract signing Islam Chesnokov, the Kazakh winger who has built a good reputation in his homeland and will join from FC Tobol.
Chesnokov will arrived in Edinburgh over Christmas and will be registered to play at the start of January, adding more pace and trickery to what is already the league’s most potent attack.
Lawrence Shankland, Claudio Braga and Alexandros Kyziridis would walk into both the Rangers and Celtic teams.
In Cammy Devlin, Hearts also have the outstanding midfield player in the country right now. He was superb once again on Sunday.
Hearts are also in the market for a right-back. They may well look to trim the squad in certain areas, but the club are not ruling out further additions if the right players become available.
There will be no reckless splashing of cash at Tynecastle. Scottish football’s economics demand shrewdness, not profligacy.
With the secret sauce of Jamestown Analytics informing their recruitment, Hearts should emerge from the January window stronger.
Celtic and Rangers, meanwhile, both face significant rebuilds. The managerial uncertainty at Celtic creates a lot of uncertainty around their transfer business.
Celtic need some centre-backs capable of playing in Wilfried Nancy’s 3-4-3 system. They also need genuine wing-backs and a proper centre-forward.
That would be an expensive shopping list at the best of times. In January, at a time when good players are at a premium, it becomes doubly difficult.
Can they afford to purchase three or four new players to arm Nancy with a squad moulded to suit his new system, when he still looks so unconvincing? It is a mess and conundrum entirely of their own making.
Paul Tisdale, their head of football operations, has also overseen a staggering decline in their playing squad over the past year or so.
The last thing Celtic should be doing is entrusting him with making more signings in another transfer window, but they might have no other choice.
The defeat at Tynecastle on Sunday highlighted Rangers’ shortcomings and the fact that Danny Rohl’s rebuild remains very much in its infancy.
They are looking at upwards of three new players in the January transfer window, as well as starting the clear out process with some of the deadwood who were signed back in the summer.
Could Rangers cash in on the likes of Nico Raskin to fund Danny Rohl’s Ibrox rebuild?
Rangers will look for a centre-back, a wide player and a new striker if possible. But money is tight. They already spent close to £30m back in the summer.
Do they look to cash-in on some of their top assets to fund a rebuild? Nico Raskin would surely be chief among those who could be moved on for decent money.
Raskin was poor on Sunday and is not having a good season. Mohamed Diomande would be another who could bring in some money and is another who too often goes missing in big games.
But one thing is for sure. The wheeling and dealing over these next few weeks will carry a level of significance that has rarely been witnessed in Scottish football.
January offers Hearts the chance to turn a good first half of the season into something more enduring. Something more historic that will resonate far beyond the borders of Scotland.
They are now in a commanding position at the top of the league. They have a weight of momentum behind them that’s impossible to ignore.
Each and every question that has been asked of them this season, they have answered it emphatically. This league title is now theirs to lose.
