In the 1990s, Rangers had it largely their own way and, if anything, probably should have dominated Scottish football more than they did, the sort of dominance that Celtic have imparted since 2012.
The gap between the Old Firm and the rest of the SPFL has only widened in the last 30 years with clubs like Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibernian hamstrung by the transfer fees and wages that they can afford.
What this means is that recruitment must be near perfect to compete, and Tony Bloom’s reported £10m investment in Hearts could make things interesting pretty soon – if it is accepted.
Kris Boyd reckons Rangers should be looking over their shoulder
Former Rangers striker Kris Boyd is fearful that the team he supports could be in trouble if the deal comes off, as told to Sky Sports:
“It’s an interesting one for Scottish football.
“A lot of people will look to Tony Bloom and straight away go to Brighton and look at the recruitment there.
“Listen, you can’t look at Hearts and say they’re going to be on the same page in terms of recruitment with Brighton.
“But where you can look is Union St-Gilloise in Belgium and their rise under Tony Bloom and other people connected with the football club there, they’ve come up and caused problems to the big ones.
“If I was Rangers or Celtic I would be worried about this appointment.
“It’s easy to turn around and a lot of people just say: ‘Oh we’ll go and throw loads of money at it’, but Tony Bloom is a shrewd, shrewd man.
“You look at the job he’s doing at Brighton, you look at the influence he’s obviously had at Union St-Gilloise and if I’m Hearts, I’m biting their hand off for this.
“The recruitment side of it could be a lot better, but Hearts are an attractive club, they can get in players that can go and challenge Rangers or Celtic.
“There’s potential at Hearts to go and challenge Rangers or Celtic, you only need to look at the recruitment from the two clubs that Tony Bloom is already involved in.
“This could be a big thing for Scottish football.”
Should Rangers be worried?
One of the reasons why Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds invested in Wrexham, was because they were told that the Scottish game was almost a closed shop.
Financial fair play has put a stop to single owner clubs being bankrolled and spending outwith their means.
It’s one of the main reasons why Philippe Clement needed to cut Rangers squad wage bill this summer and why he couldnt just go out and spend money to replace duds that he inherited.
Even if Hearts get the extra advice and guidance from Brighton’s chief, they still have considerable barriers to progress.
They need to up their revenue significantly.
Rangers revenue is pushing £100m and they can’t just go out and spend £20m every summer.
And that’s with a 50,000-seater stadium, over 45,000 season ticket holders and regular European football in the knockout stages.
It simply isn’t as simple as putting money into a club and giving them recruitment advice.
Brighton are on a different level too.
The misconception that they pick up bargains for peanuts, flip them and sell them for millions is a relative concept.
A bargain for a Premier League club is a record fee for Rangers and even Celtic, for all their cash in the bank.
The other question that hasn’t been answered yet, what’s in it for Brighton?
As seen with a similar, but different, model at Hibernian, having a link to a Premier League club isn’t the instant win that many would think.
As Boyd said though, this could be interesting.
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