EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - MAY 04: Rangers' Bojan Miovski looks dejected during a William Hill Premiership match between Heart of Midlothian and Rangers at Tynecastle Park, on May 04, 2026, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Hearts have beaten the Ibrox club tonight, to take another step closer to the unlikeliest of titles.
Let me be blunt.
If Hearts are champions on the final day of this season, I will be gutted and I will be angry. I will blame the Celtic board of directors, because all they needed to do was back the manager properly.
They could have supported either Brendan Rodgers at the start of the season or Martin O’Neill in January. All they had to do was give the manager money to properly equip us for the campaign. They failed utterly.
If Hearts are champions on the last day of the season, I will blame Michael Nicholson, Chris McKay, Dermot Desmond and any survivor of the old regime who is still trying to cling on by his fingertips. I will blame those people.
I will be frustrated and angry at that failure. But I will also congratulate Hearts as worthy champions, because if they get over the line from here, they will deserve it.
I will have no problem admitting that. I will have no problem saying I got it wrong earlier in the season when I said they would blow up.
By the way, I still think they might.
I said to you the other day that Motherwell away is the game I keep looking at.
I still believe this Hearts side may yet meet its Waterloo.
But I’ve been watching football for a long time. I’m a big boy. I can take it when you are simply beaten by a team that deserves it more.
We’ve seen individual cup games over the years, lost cup finals where the other team deserved it more. St Mirren in the League Cup earlier in the season thoroughly deserved to win. I was angry at the manager and angry at the club at full time, but they were worthy winners.
Hearts have won something like 18 points from losing positions this season. That is what gets you a title. They have shown determination and balls to pull themselves up. If they do it, I won’t like it, but fair play to them.
There will have to be a reckoning at Celtic Park. A very, very large reckoning for losing a title to Hearts. But let us be blunt and say what is surely obvious to all of us.
The Armageddon scenario has tonight been averted.
It may well be that Hearts are not the great myth of Scottish football this season after all, but Danny Röhl has certainly proved to be one of the most bizarre. He is a guy who makes no sense on any real level. Danny Röhl is a charlatan, and the fact he has so many media acolytes willing to eat out of his hand is embarrassing.
All those people in the mainstream media who, weeks ago, tipped the Ibrox club to win the league ought to be thoroughly shamed tonight. Because I don’t know what they were basing it on. It certainly wasn’t anything brilliant that Röhl was capable of. It certainly wasn’t any talent that he possessed.
Head of the queue is Keevins and the other writers at that rag of his, but him especially, because he was the guy who said in January that they had bought the title. He said Celtic’s directors had shafted the manager while the Ibrox board had delivered for theirs.
I said at the time that I was not letting our board off the hook. Our board did nothing to help Martin O’Neill. But to claim, just because the Ibrox signings cost a lot of money, that they had delivered the title was an awfully big deductive leap with nothing to back it up. He had no idea who any of those players were, and neither did anyone else.
It doesn’t matter how much you spend, it matters what you spend it on.
Motherwell and Hearts have embarrassed the Ibrox club this season with their spending. They have assembled good sides that have had a decisive impact on Ibrox’s season for a minuscule fraction of what the Ibrox club has spent.
It is what you get for the money that matters.
I look at some of the players we signed in recent years, particularly in the Ange Postecoglou windows. Matt O’Riley cost less than £2 million. Daizen Maeda cost a million and a half, and that is the guy who could yet win us the league.
The Ibrox board has proved to be a very poor spender of money. It has proved to be an even bigger failure when it comes to spotting managers. But give them enough money, and they will get some of it right eventually.
Under no circumstances could their club walk away with a guaranteed Champions League jackpot.
Tonight, we avoided the true nightmare scenario of this season.
Hearts will not lose all three of their remaining games. I hope they drop points in two, including a defeat to us on the final day, but they now have the cushion they need to make sure Ibrox cannot catch them.
We can hammer the final nail into Ibrox’s coffin at the weekend by winning and making sure they cannot catch us either, no matter what Hearts do.
Yes, we now look to Motherwell and then Falkirk to do us a major favour. Otherwise, it will go to the last day, and we will need our most comfortable win of the season to wipe out Hearts’ goal-difference advantage.
But if it does come down to Hearts on that final day, level on points, in a game where the winner takes it all, then the league will produce a worthy champion, whoever it is. As a football fan, and someone who believes in meritocracy, I can live with that.
I will be able to live with it. I will look in the mirror and know this has been a bad, bad season, but apart from Hearts ending another long run of Celtic titles, it has not caused lasting damage to the club. Not on the pitch anyway.
Reputationally, yes. And we all know who is responsible for that.
For the Ibrox club, their entire season now comes down to next weekend. Not for themselves, because they are not going to get their hands on the trophy at this stage. No, their entire season now comes down to taking points off us and winning it for Hearts.
I don’t care what comes out of their mouths. They are no happier about that outcome than I am about the prospect of Hearts winning it in front of us. There is no consolation to be had from stopping your rivals winning a title if you don’t get it yourself.
But there is consolation in stopping them from getting their hands on the kind of money that would make a rebuild easier, smoother and more likely to succeed.
Here’s the difference. We have the money for the rebuild. We have the money to bootstrap this team and this club. Additionally, we have saleable assets who we can move on and bring in even more money.
Keevins and his guys were right about one thing. They may have been wrong about the part that mattered, but they were right to say that the Ibrox board pushed out the boat, took the chance and gambled on winning the title.
Tonight, that gamble is over. Tonight, that gamble failed. Fear and loathing, that’s all they’ve got left. The fear that Celtic might yet win this and the loathing directed at their own club and all of Scottish football.
Whatever happens next over there, they are going to have to do it with limited funds, because UEFA is watching, and FSR can be ignored only for so long before there are consequences.
This was not my ideal result tonight. The draw would have been better because that would have given us the best possible chance.
But we are not out of it yet. Hearts are still a long way from getting their hands on the trophy. The only thing we know right now is that it won’t be going to Ibrox.
For the moment, that is good enough.
Because a whole world of truly awful possibilities has just been removed from this equation.
Friends at Motherwell, it is over to you.
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We may never know but of the useless fucking board had back the manager and bought decent players instead of the shite that they did then we would be miles ahead
I like Brendan but it was him who brought in tounekti and Balikwisha ( or was it) but the board brought in the rest of the dross and sold 50/60goals in the shape of Kyogo, Idah and Kuhn without replacing any of them they shoulder a massive amount of the blame
But I guess they cant be blamed for the shite performances we have put up – all the back passing and side to side shite and fucking about on the edge of the box – well maybe if we had a decent striker all that fucking about wouldn’t be happening.
So we need the board out to fuck, new people with fresh ideas In charge and some decent first team ready players for next season
At least we now know the huns won’t win the league- thats one crumb of comfort
The Diets need one more win to put the title statistically out of Sevco’s reach, Stevie. And i wouldn’t bet on all the shite backpassing tactics stopping if we had a striker. I think we need a really good manager to put a stop to that.
Rohl’s arrogance coupled with the Ibrox mindset and a compliant and deluded media horde has been their downfall. They think they’re better than they really are and tonight this was evident as they capitulated yet again. In saying that, the huns will be a very dangerous opponent at the weekend. I also think Motherwell will have a huge say in this title run in.
I don’t think we should be laughing at sevco for the money they spent as we are more or less in the same picture when comparing finances here to buying players ourselves up against Motherwell and Hearts.
It’s good sevco have dropped further behind tonight,but we still ain’t in no great shape ourselves,but we are still in this title fighting.
Experience might play a big part in reaching the finishing line and getting over it and Hearts might run out juice before the winning line is reached,since they ain’t been anywhere near this situation for about 6 decades.
Well put, Scud Missile or is it Madman Mars tonight. Perhaps its one of your older iterations from way back in time, possibly at a Crossroads in the Midlands?
The Scud Missile guy sounds a right good guy,as does Madman Mars,not got a clue about the guy from the Midlands though,lol.
Might be something to do with my memory.
But if i I’m down in the midlands I will book myself into The Crossroads Motel.
Bittersweet result for me…I hate both clubs…but so happy that Sevco will win feck all…Again…I wanted a draw…but tipped Hearts to win..As for the final outcome …??…Well all we can do is win our 3 games…and trust to luck…Hail hail.
I’m pretty sure that Celtic’s next manager in waiting will be pulling out all the stops next week against Hearts to ensure that he will be managing a team in the Champion’s league next season. 🙂
Hearts have done better than I expected under the pressure but next week it’ll be ramped up again with the extra pressure of being clear title favourites and playing first. ‘Mon the ‘well.
A draw would’ve suited us better but it is still funny, no trophy for the tribute act again, probably a new manager again, and maybe third place with no prospect of decent European money, it’s a disaster for them.
We’re still in a state but it might not seem like it after Sunday. It could turn ugly with their frustration coming out on Sunday but hopefully we can do a job on them.
The Hearts win tonight was the worst possible result we could’ve hoped for. Celtics chances of winning this league have been deeply diminished because of it. Our league chance is out of our hands now.
Win next two games and hopefully go into the last game where a 2 goal win could win us the League.I know it’s an outside chance, but it’s a possibility, it’s not exactly out of our hands. Every goal counts even more than ever, it’s a pity we’ve not got a fit out and out striker, again courtesy of this Board.
With the shambles of a season we’ve had, the only consolation we’ve got is the Ibrox mob are now out of the race. For them to have won this League and go straight into the Champions League was unthinkable.The hun hordes are in a state of shock and hatred tonight once again. For us to have such a Fxck up of a season and them not taking advantage has driven most of them over the edge.
Hearts as a club have never bothered me, they have never had a sectarian signing policy and quite a few ex Hearts players have become Celtic heroes, the notable one being Lisbon Lion Willie Wallce.
If they win this League they may have been gifted it by our Board, but the players and manager will deserve it.
We’re still in there pitching, could it be a repeat of 1986 and we hit the front in the last 50 yards, you never know.
Of course that’s Willie Wallace.
I think that IF we beat Sevco that’s them third anyway so definitely we’re all fuckin Motherwell fans on Saturday night for sure !
Just keep our hopes alive and relegate Sevco to Conference League Football !
James, you said it was all over for us when Dundee U. beat us.
Its not over till its over. Entirely possible for Hearts to lose their next 2 games.
Massive game coming up next week. They are shite but so are we.
A win for them and a win for Motherwell tightens it up a bit with 2 games to go.
It’s not a 2 horse race until after next week m8!
Let’s not gloat too soon. It is not mathematically impossible for Sevco to still win the league. Highly improbable for sure, but not impossible. If they were to win their last 3 games and us and hearts were to lose our next 2, then only a hearts victory would prevent them winning the league. If that WERE to happen, how many of us would be supporting hearts that day??