Tony Bloom will have Hearts next manager algorithm but obvious doesn't need supercomputer – Keith Jackson

Tony Bloom will almost certainly have an algorithm built for this very scenario.

As a matter of fact, it’s easy to imagine Ann Budge and a bunch of boffins crowding around the Brighton owner’s oracle of a laptop, jostling for enlightenment as it disseminates the data before coughing up with the name of the ideal man for the job of replacing Steven Naismith. But sometimes the answer is so blindingly obvious that it doesn’t require a supercomputer to crush through the numbers before pinpointing the perfect candidate and tracking him down by GPS to some artisan coffee shop in a suburb of Reykjavik.

Not when Derek McInnes is just an hour and a half down the road and churning out more irrefutable, undeniable evidence of his value as a manager after almost two decades of almost unbroken overachievement. Yes doubtless Starlizard, Bloom’s miracle working analytics machine, will come up with some interesting alternatives from left field and, true, Hearts would be mad not to at least take a look for themselves assuming the technology is made available to them.

But it’s entirely feasible that the name of McInnes will feature high on that list of options in any case. If it does not then there’s probably something wonky with the programming or a glitch in the system.

Because, time and again over the years, McInnes has proven his credentials as one of this country’s smartest home grown managers and a man more than capable of putting up a consistent credible challenge to the big two, which is precisely what Bloom is hoping to achieve by getting involved at Tynecastle.

The English entrepreneur has offered to lump in around £10m for Hearts to invest in signing new players using his data-driven model and if McIness was armed with such a