Total eclipse of the Hearts: A Scottish Premiership review | OneFootball

The Scottish Premiership season is yet to reach its halfway stage, but there has been more off-the-pitch unrest than most leagues would see across a full campaign.

Whether it is against the board or the manager, there is always something to protest about in the league which never disappoints, at least wherever delivering chaos is concerned.

So much has happened that it would be impossible to include everything in a single article, but here are some of the highlights.

Hearts of joy could soon be broken

No club except Celtic and Rangers have won the Scottish Premiership since the invention of the television… give or take a few years. However, every neutral supporter was licking their lips when Heart of Midlothian defeated the champions of Scotland and took an eight point lead at the top of the Premiership.

What a story this would be – Hearts ending the reign of Glasgow’s dominant duo. After all, the club might be one of the biggest teams in the country, but their only success in the past decade has been winning the Championship. Like, come on, even Livingston have done that!

Of course, the pressure appears to have already gotten to Derek McInnes’ team, whose title hopes could be about to die as quickly as Aberdeen’s did last season. Dropping points in three of their past four games, they do not appear to possess the mentality of winners. Rather, they are more like a team who always bottle their chances, sort of like, well, Rangers.

Hearts supporters were doing the huddle during their victory over Celtic in October. Yet by December, they might copy their title rivals again and boo Santa Claus when they find themselves back in their usual league position. 

A civil war is underway at Celtic

How ironic that a club with a strong Irish heritage is experiencing a civil war between the establishment and those who rebel against them. It all sounds too familiar, right?

Celtic supporters have made it clear that they want to ‘sack the board’ and some even went as far as getting the club’s annual general meeting cancelled. Because seriously, who cares about winning nearly every domestic trophy on offer in the past decade when you get knocked out of Champions League qualifying by clubs like Kairat Almaty? 

The Bhoys should have released a statement offering their condolences to those who had the misfortune of suffering through all 210 minutes of the diabolical tie. It’s almost like deciding to sell your best players and replace them with a bunch of randos you found listed on Temu isn’t a good idea.

Celtic’s shambolic start to the season has already seen Brendan Rodgers quit for a second time and who can blame him? Surely he cannot be blamed for his side producing the most dull and uninspiring football Celtic Park has ever witnessed! 

To be honest, reading Dermot Desmond’s hit piece on Rodgers after his departure offered more excitement than the ex-manager delivered for months. At least Martin O’Neill came out of his retirement ahead of his 110th birthday and beat Rangers in the cup, whilst delivering Celtic an all-important lesson – how to pass the ball forward.

Wilfried Nancy is now preparing himself to take over and he is already under scrutiny. After all, how could a manager from a club outside Europe possibly be any good? It’s not like this kind of appointment has ever delivered a success story before… cough, cough, Ange Postecoglou.

Where are you Rangers?

There were feelings of hope around Ibrox, with Russell Martin named as Phillipe Clement’s replacement in the managerial hot seat. The head coach had left Southampton bottom of the Premier League in his last job, so what could possibly go wrong?

Fast forward a few months and Russell was enjoying an escort from the cops to protect him from his own club’s supporters. It is no wonder he is already unemployed again, after doing a better job of destroying Rangers than most Celtic players could even dream of.

Danny Rohl has come in and already proceeded to lose the League Cup semi-final – their biggest match of the season up to this point. In fairness, it wasn’t his fault Thelo Aasgaard got sent off after attempting to break Anthony Ralston’s legs.

The German has managed to guide Rangers back to winning ways in the Premiership and he will be hoping to have the same impact in Europe. Qualifying for the play-offs will be tricky, but right now just managing not to finish bottom of the 36-team league phase would be an achievement.

Elsewhere in the Scottish Premiership

Aberdeen hit the headlines after recording a 1-0 victory over Hearts. Many were shocked to see the Scottish Cup winners defeat the league leaders. In fact, almost everyone was shocked they won a game at all.

In stark contrast, Livingston haven’t won a match since August and look set to be relegated to the Championship in an event which happens about once every other year. Who saw that coming?

Then there is Falkrik, who are enjoying a first season in the top flight for more than a decade. Sitting inside the top six, you have to respect what they are doing. Perhaps as a result of this accomplishment, they can finally build the missing side stand at their stadium and fast track the installation of a real grass pitch like a proper club would.