Hearts chief chucks caution in the bin as multi-million pathbreaker makes him truly believe in title glory

Hearts chief Andrew McKinlay believes the Tynecastle tie-in with the analytics firm behind Brighton’s success can turn them into genuine title challengers. The Jambos sit rock bottom of the Premiership after the worst start to a season in their history. But a multi-million pound investment that will see the club benefit from the use of Jamestown Analytics, the data and stats company owned by Tony Bloom’s Starlizard, has McKinlay excited.

Forget the cash injection, as welcome as that will be, McKinlay reckons it’s the keys to the software that could see Hearts finally drive in between Celtic and Rangers. Furthermore he genuinely believes it could fuel a genuine Gorgie push for the Premiership title not too far down the line.

McKinlay has seen the revolutionary effect it’s had on Brighton through smart transfer trading. Ipswich Town used the same tool to help their surge from the third tier of English football back into the Premier League for the first time in 22 years. And the rise of Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgian football since plugging into the system has been one of European football’s success stories.

McKinlay said: “The investment is going to be great, it's going to help, but it's not the exciting bit of this. The exciting bit for me is access to the analytics. If you look at how analytics has been used at other clubs, and how successful it's been at other clubs, you can't help but be excited.

“When I first came into the club, we'd just been demoted. I remember saying I wanted to get us back to being the third force in Scotland. I got abuse because I wasn't showing enough aspiration. I learned quickly. I've never said in an interview that we should be first or second. That's always been on my mind.

“I’ve