The unofficial title is best of the rest. But this season’s third place in the Scottish Premiership is on course to be one of the worst.
Hearts currently languish 25 points behind second placed Rangers with 10 games to go. And should that chasm stretch by another 10 points then it will become the biggest ever gap between the Old Firm and the rest. It’s led to suggestions the Scottish top flight has never been in a poorer condition. Celtic dumping Hearts out the Scottish Cup at Tynecastle on Saturday added to that opinion with former Celtic striker John Hartson claiming afterwards that other sides had to do more to help the Jam Tarts hang on the Glasgow duo’s coat tails.
The Hoops have lost only once and Rangers just twice in 28 games and you need to go back to 2002-03 for that record 34-point gap between second and third.
Craig Levein was manager of that Hearts side which accumulated a not too shabby 63 points from 38 games - but still finished miles behind the Old Firm who had flown over the horizon to finish on 97 points on Helicopter Sunday. Current Hearts director of football Joe Savage is on record saying his ambition in his time at Tynecastle is to win the league or at least split the Old Firm. But according to Levein that will never happen. Not with finances as they are in Scottish football.
Worst top flight ever? Levein wouldn’t commit to that. But what he does reckon is that Scotland has the least competitive league in Europe. And the only way to liven it up, according to the former Scotland manager, is for Celtic and Rangers to LEAVE for the English Premier League.
It’s an old argument that was shot down in 2009 when 14 EPL chairmen voted no when asked if inviting Glasgow’s big two to join them would be desirable.
But Levein reckons everyone would be a winner if the Old Firm joined the richest league in the world - so long as they agreed to send annual payments of £100m back to the clubs in their home nations to allow the Scottish game to grow.
He told Record Sport: “I hesitate to say if this is the poorest top flight because I’d need to see all the facts and figures from down the years.
“But what I would say is we’ve probably got the least competitive league in Europe.
“And the problems are the same as they were 20 years ago when my Hearts side finished third by whatever points gap you mentioned. They’re financial.
“Since David Murray took over at Rangers in the late 80s and Celtic kept pace with them then things have been so difficult for the other teams to be as competitive. Even before that, in the early 80s, when clubs decided that the home team would keep the gate money - that was when there was a significant advantage for the bigger clubs. And, to be clear here, you can’t argue with that decision because it’s their supporters and their money.
“Joe Savage wants to split the Old Firm and that’s great. It’s a good ambition to have. But having that and making it happen are two completely different things.
“My views are very straight forward - when the next financial crisis happens in the Premier League in England and they are looking for something different then I would absolutely drive the Old Firm down there myself.
“I would love the two of them to play in England and represent Scotland, get the money that’s associated with that which would allow them to grow and be competitive in that league.
“And at the same time if they both gave the teams in Scotland £50m a year, so a combined £100m, for allowing them to move down there then that would allow the Scottish game to grow immeasurably.
“It’s a bit of a pipe dream maybe. But I can’t see any other way of Scottish football being as competitive as everyone wants it to be.
“If the Old Firm were playing in England and paying for the privilege - and they wouldn’t miss £50m each - then all the other teams up here could raise their levels significantly.
“Then you have a level in Scotland where you could have seven or eight clubs challenging for the title.
“Scottish football would thrive.”
Levein’s old club may be best placed to cement third place on a regular basis but the man who had two spells in the Tynecastle dig out reckons unless a megarich tycoon decides to throw £50m at it then he sees no way of them stepping in between Glasgow’s big two.
Even when he was boss 20 years ago he knew second place was out of reach.
He said: “Would I be aiming for third? Yes. Anybody who says they had ambitions to finish first then I woudn’t believe them.
“It was nigh well impossible.
“The last time Hearts finished second was when Romanov was there and threw £40-£50m at it. Until someone else is prepared to do likewise then the gap won’t close.
“Hearts will get to the point where they can handle Europe and the league campaigns simultaneously. The regular Euro money will help as well. But the Old Firm will still be making more year on year so that doesn’t bridge that gap.
“It brings us back round to the solution of the Old Firm going down south and sending £100m a year back.
“There’s signs that Hearts are the team that could gain that level of consistency that will pull them closer to the Old Firm.
“But trust me .. they won’t be competing at the same level for a long, long time unless those two disappear down to England.
“I honestly think it will happen one day. When a broadcaster gets a bit bored of the Premier League and are looking for something different. There’s a precedent set with the Welsh team playing in the Premier League so I don’t see why it would be an issue.”
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