The leaders host Celtic on Sunday five points clear, boosted by Brighton owner’s access to ‘the best dataset in the world’
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hen Hearts went top of the table during a captivating but ultimately ill-fated campaign of 1985-86, the Scottish football writer John Fairgrieve insisted far too much was being made of his team’s prominence. “This is the club that represents the capital city,” he wrote. “Not merely Stenhousemuir, Montrose, Hibernian or Arbroath.”
The dig at Hibs still makes those who frequent Tynecastle Park smile, but there was a broader truism. Edinburgh, for reasons enhanced by four decades of Old Firm championship dominance, is viewed in provincial football terms.
Hearts had the smartest man in the room long before Tony Bloom predicted an end to Glasgow’s stranglehold. James Anderson is the remarkable, modest philanthropist who has bestowed tens of millions of benefactor funds on Hearts over the past decade when not mixing with the most illustrious names in technology or finance. For fuller context, he also gave $100m to a university in Bologna.
