Hearts are everything Celtic aren’t so put the lot on champions elect against champions neglect

Hugh thinks there’s greater chance of the Premiership flag flying above Tynecastle than Brendan Rodgers’ side making it Five-in-a-row.

Veteran sportswriter and broadcaster with a distinctive style. A boxing expert as well as a football writer and columnist for the Daily Record and Sunday Mail, Hugh also presents Clyde 1 FM’s Superscoreboard show.

Derek McInnes and Brendan Rodgers

I would rebrand Sunday’s meeting of Hearts and Celtic as champions-elect versus champions-neglect.

It has reached a stage where, to my mind, it’ll look bad on Derek McInnes’ record if he doesn’t become the first non-Old Firm manager for 40 years to win the league title.

Celtic might have had a resolute win over Sturm Graz on Thursday but it came with injuries that only highlight the impoverished nature of a squad denied improvement by an awful summer transfer window.

On current form, there is a greater chance of the Premiership flag flying above Tynecastle than there is of Brendan Rodgers’ side making it Five-in-a-row.

And if an already agitated Celtic support wants Rangers kept at bay while they sort out their own problems, then they should prefer to see Hearts maintain, or even better, their present 13-point lead over the Ibrox side by the end of play tomorrow.

Even if that means a defeat in Edinburgh.

I wrote here last Sunday that I wouldn’t have put two bob on Celtic winning at Dundee – and I was spot on.

Dundee’s Clark Robertson scores to make it 1-0

Today I would put my bank account, my house and the grandchildren’s inheritance on a Hearts victory because they are everything Celtic are not.

The defending champs represent a club engulfed by contempt, and contempt is not a driving force for success – whether you’re behind the wheel of a Honda Civic or a Ferrari.

The manager is contemptuous of the board he works for, in my opinion, and that explains the post-match reference to makes of motors while being a television picture of exasperation in Dundee.

It was, to my mind, nothing to do with the team’s speed of play, more a dig at a recruitment strategy that has cost Rodgers outstanding players and replaced them with palpably inferior talents. The board is contemptuous of the manager, as shown by their response to Brendan’s assertion that a “cowardly act” had taken place when a senior figure planted a newspaper story about the manager trying to engineer his way out of Celtic Park.

The story, they said, was “unsubstantiated,” without any explanation why.

Fans are contemptuous of a board they accused of lacking “humility, awareness and accountability” in a press release.

The Celtic board is contemptuous of a fan base they keep at arm’s length, prompting a supporter to set up “Not Another Penny,” designed to stop the purchase of club merchandise and matchday catering in protest.

It is a disruptive and destructive atmosphere.

And you can add to all of that a growing resentment towards Rodgers from those disillusioned support who say his team plays boring football.

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Do it by the numbers.

Celtic have scored 11 league goals in eight games so far. Hearts, along with Hibs, Dundee United and Motherwell, have more than that number.

Hearts have 19 goals from eight games with four clean-sheets in a row prior to kick-off this afternoon.

Based on what we have seen in the league so far, Celtic are as tepid as they are turgid and a club that’s loaded has imploded.

They sold quality and bought mediocrity. You reap what you sow.

Who, under those circumstances, would your money be on at Tynecastle?

Or, for that matter, the outcome of the title race?