How Hearts make Celtic and Rangers next level step - wage dilemma, game changers and mind-boggling offer

Can any team in Scotland really bridge the gap to Celtic and Rangers? Then, when it comes to it, actually challenge? For so many, such talk remains fanciful and fantasy. Programmed to believe and expect an Old Firm one-two. Understandable when you consider both finances and history.

It would be a fascinating experiment to see if that viewpoint would change if you just happen to find yourself stuck in conversation with Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay and the club’s sporting director Joe Savage. Both are positive, refreshing and enthusiastic, forward-thinking and ambitious. The tone and the atmosphere they create when a room hangs on their every word allows for the dreamer to escape. ‘Maybe a team can challenge Celtic and Rangers!’ The team currently best placed to begin to do so is the Tynecastle Park club.

Savage has not been scared to express his ambition of aiming for the top, not just settling for third. McKinlay has not quite been as bullish but you get the sense, when listening to him, it won't be long before he is joining his colleague in such a position.

'Look above and challenge’

"There's a lot we can still do," he said, looking back at the great strides the club have made since being “demoted” in 2022. “I talked at the AGM about cementing third place or better. I also made the point that it's not as easy as people sometimes think. In my lifetime, which is not short, Hearts have only once been able to finish third or better in back-to-back seasons. That's what we are trying to do this year.

"We need to win one of them [the Scottish or League Cup]. You will hear Robbie Neilson say that as well. It's all about silverware and he wants silverware. As for the league, I want us to be seen as the third-best team and then I want us to be able to look above and challenge, especially if one of the Old Firm have a bad season. You want to be able to exploit that. I’d love to sit here and say I’d love to win the league and we all aspire towards that but we know how difficult that is."

Game changers

McKinlay pinpoints two “game changers” in helping the club to bridge that gap: European group stage football and player trading. The club are on course to make a £3million profit from their European adventure in the Europa Conference League. The aim is to get back there again and again and again, when profits would be even bigger due to some of the costs required this year. As for player trading, the majority of Scottish football is still playing catch-up. There are three levels to it. Developing your own talent, savvy recruitment and ensuring key assets are not sold on the cheap. The latter is something which irks McKinlay.

Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

“We do get asked with some of the deals we do if we will put buyout clauses in," he said. “Some of the numbers that people say... I genuinely still think Scottish football gets the mickey taken out of us by England in particular. Five million quid for them is like a punt. We should turn round and say ‘no, no, no these are tiny’.

“You look at the players who have left Scotland. Kieran Tierney, Celtic have had a few others leave for decent money, and I suppose Rangers have had Calvin Bassey, but it’s always been Rangers and Celtic. Aberdeen have done quite well recently with a couple who have been sold but you are still in the sub-five million bracket. I genuinely think we should be getting a lot more money, not just us but other clubs. We should be much stronger when and if we do sell players.”

Wage dilemma

One such player is Kye Rowles. Hearts don't want to lose him. Only a “mind-boggling" offer would take the World Cup star away from Gorgie with the club reluctant to put a price tag on the Australian centre-back. He is one of numerous examples of the “excellent” recruitment over the last couple of years. The consideration now is taking that to the next level, what that means and avoiding contract and wage situations like former midfielder Loic Damour who was signed on a lucrative four-year deal.

Hearts' sporting Director, Joe Savage has improved the club's recruitment. (Photo by Mark Scates / SNS Group)

McKinlay said: “They have never brought anyone to me and I’ve said, ‘no, we can’t do that’. They know what our financial parameters are. Having said that, there are a few when they have asked, ‘can we go a bit further?’ And to date we have always managed to find a way. We are in an interesting place, taking us to the next level, what does that mean, and how do you do that? If you pay a player X, what is that next level and are you definitely guaranteed because you pay a player a couple of grand more that he is going to be a much better player?

"The wages are probably still the number one thing. We had lunch with all the various directors with all the European clubs we played. When we were sitting down with the Fiorentina guys. They were talking about how they had just sold a guy to Juventus for £80million and they signed this guy for this amount of money. He is talking about all of this and I was asked how much we had spent on players. I said, ‘overall in the summer we did spend about £1 million on different transfer fees’. But it’s all done over instalments and several years. I could see him looking at me going, ‘is that it?’

"Wages are still the crucial bit. That’s the bit you are building on for that period of the contract and let’s face it we don’t want one we inherited when I came in the door, the French player who we had to pay quite a lot for.”