Celtic should watch Tony Bloom. He’s a believer and his team will be too.

It’s tempting to give Tony Bloom stick for his comments ahead of the Aberdeen game last night. Tempting, but wrong. Yes, he sounds like a bit of a blowhard. Yes, there’s a touch of arrogance to his remarks. Some might even say he sounds delusional when he talks about how his side can win the title.

But I’ll tell you this much for free: the people who never win anything are the ones who practise caution. The ones who don’t believe. The ones who settle for. Until a club is in the hands of someone who genuinely believes that success is possible, it won’t achieve a damned thing.

Towards the end of last season, I said I thought the problem with Scottish football was the mentality. Outside of Glasgow, too many clubs think third place is good enough. Qualifying for Europe? Good enough. Getting to a cup final? Good enough.

I said at the time that what Scottish football needs is more of the Blake spirit. Blake, of course, being the storming, malevolent presence who opens Glengarry Glen Ross by telling the salesmen of Mitch & Murray that the monthly sales contest now has a third prize: first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize? You’re fired.

For too long, clubs in this league have coasted on mediocrity. They’ve accepted the idea that third place is a ceiling, not a floor. Whatever else you might say about Tony Bloom, he does not accept that. He won’t settle for it. He wants to win.

While I don’t think he’s the big heroic figure that some Celtic sites seem to believe he is—he doesn’t get every decision right, and I don’t think he’s some miracle man we should all be lying awake at night terrified of—he has one major thing going for him: he’s got the belief. He has the confidence, even the arrogance, to think that both Glasgow clubs are there for the taking. And, frankly, when you look at how we’re run, he’s right. Because we are.

The Ibrox club is a permanent mess, roiled in controversy and weighed down by self-inflicted wounds. Ours is a club that lacks strategic vision and focus. It’s run by men too scared to take real risks, men who are comfortable being big fish in a small pond. And we’ve always been able to rely on the other clubs in the league not being good enough to catch us.

But maybe, just maybe, that’s about to change.

Because no club in Scotland is more in need of a serious, professional, driven rival than we are. If a real challenge emerged—one built on ambition and smart strategy—and it forced us to be even 10% better, well, that’s still 10% more than we’re doing right now.

Now, let’s be honest: Bloom has obvious obstacles. FSR regulations will prevent him from going mad with the chequebook.

The club can’t spend beyond its means, and that limits them right from the start. But if they can get into Europe regularly, get group-stage football, they’ll unlock more financial firepower. Without it, they’re probably on a hiding to nothing.

And there’s another problem.

The hole in the Moneyball theory is that everyone knows this stuff now. The days when you could exploit inefficiencies that others didn’t see are largely over. If you’re limiting yourself to a certain kind of player—either because of budget, or because your model says that’s all you should chase—then you’re narrowing the path to success.

You’re reducing it to miracle status. And a miracle is exactly what it would take to win this league over 38 games without being able to outspend or outgun the big two.

But, like I said, nobody’s going to achieve that who doesn’t start with the belief that it can be done. That’s why I find Bloom’s comments refreshing.

I don’t think we should be afraid of him. I don’t think he’s going to topple Celtic any time soon. But he wants to upend the paradigm. He thinks he can. And that means he won’t settle for less than the best efforts of everyone around him.

That means he will push. That means he may even be one of the few club owners who understands that to put his own side on a better footing, the game itself needs to be on a better footing. And if that’s where his ambition leads—towards meaningful reform, innovation, professional standards—then I’ll welcome it. Because God knows our own club has no appetite for that kind of leadership anymore.

Bloom says all the right things. And I think he’ll try to do all the right things. The removal of Dave Cormack from operational control at that club is another big tick in Bloom’s column. If he gets a free hand, if he gets to put his model in place without local egos interfering, then who knows? Maybe he can change the game.

Because if the prize can be won—if someone can actually do it—it’s never going to go to the faint-hearted. It won’t go to someone who settles for third. It won’t go to someone who sees the mountain and backs away.

It’ll go to someone who sees it and says, “Why not me?”

And in that regard, I don’t feel any need to mock Tony Bloom or criticise him for his belief. I admire it. Because for the first time in a long time, a club outside Glasgow isn’t just hoping to be relevant. They’re planning to be.

I wish him well.

Although not too well.

Because we need this. The whole game does.