James Anderson finds Celtic and Rangers domination 'puzzling' as Hearts backer rails against growing football trend

James Anderson says there's no reason why a club like Hearts can't lay a serious glove on Celtic and Rangers.

The wealthy businessman was revealed to have made another £4m donation to the Tynecastle club in their annual accounts. He has made big cash-pledges to the Jambos previously and is a benefactor at SWPL side Glasgow City, with a total of more than £40m put into the Scottish game by him.

Aberdeen's title glory in 1985 was the last time anyone in the men's game won the top flight outside of Celtic and Rangers, with such control confusing Anderson. Pointing to examples of Atalanta in Italy brokering their success into a financial strength comparing with Roma, AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands and Villarreal in Spain, he tells the Daily Mail more of a challenge can be brought on by some of the nation's bigger club. And he doesn't think constant calls for managerial sackings are helping matters. He said: "I find the sheer dominance of Rangers and Celtic puzzling.

"If you go through different European countries in all of their leagues, there have been serious challenges to the big two or big three. These may not end up in you winning the league but it does amount to a serious challenge and it does change the structure of the club and its aspirations.

"I am not convinced the economics of all this are that much different to those that prevail here. We have to manage the narratives. Too much attention is on the manager.

The last match is all that matters and if it goes the wrong way then it is 'sack the board, sack the manager.' The more you look at the data, there is evidence that tells you that there is much more chance in all of this in the short term and most managers don’t make a difference.

"There are outliers, of