By Barry Anderson
Copyright scotsman
Tony Bloom’s Hearts aspirations are ambitious and bold, but head coach Derek McInnes is not daunted. Bloom’s talk of winning the Scottish league title within the next 10 years brought plenty derision after he invested £9.86m in the Edinburgh club. He is determined to help bring success and McInnes is fully on board. A strong start to the 2025/26 Premiership sees Hearts joint-top of the league table alongside Celtic after five matches. Bloom attended their opening two fixtures and enjoyed victories over Aberdeen and Dundee United. He stated publicly that Hearts could even finish second this year and, so far, they look capable of doing so. “Tony’s come up and he’s shot from the hip really about his intentions for the club, and it’s great for everybody to hear that’s connected with the club because we’re all ambitious, we all want to do well. We all want a successful Hearts,” McInnes said in an interview with Sky Sports. “How quickly we can get there remains to be seen, but I think he delivered in his message the confidence that we can get there hopefully as quickly as we can, and there is evidence of that. So I think maybe people can sit up and take notice a bit more of that rather than just me saying we’ve got off to a good start, so I think that’s added to it.” Hearts beat Rangers 2-0 at Ibrox last Saturday to further underline their credentials as a team ready to challenge again in the upper echelons of the Premiership. The Tynecastle side finished seventh last term, prompting club officials to sack head coach Neil Critchley. McInnes arrived from Kilmarnock as the replacement a few weeks later. A total of 11 new signings were completed over the summer to revamp Hearts’ first-team squad. McInnes believes winning games has helped them settle in. “Just getting that familiarity, it’s always your biggest concern when you bring so many players in,” he acknowledged. “I think being able to integrate so many from different leagues, different cultures, I think that’s important. “It’s not easy winning games in the Premiership, I think you’ve seen already this season how many draws there have been, and there are those fine margins. The fact that we’ve managed to edge out a few teams with good victories, late victories, three away victories, I think we’ve shown different ways to win. “The start is just exactly what you’d have hoped in the league, but it is just a start. For the new lads coming in, they would have some idea of what the club was like, but I think they’ll have seen some of the away crowds celebrating and winning at Ibrox. All these types of things are vitally important for the players to grasp that really quickly. I think the win [at Rangers] on Saturday will do us no harm, but it’s only three points, and we’ve got to try and just maintain that.” READ MORE: Hearts begin a restructure with staff set to leave
