EPL chairman impressed with the start from his Scottish Premiership club

Tony Bloom watched from the directors’ box as Hearts beat both Aberdeen and Dundee United to start the William Hill Premiership with a 100 per cent record. The Brighton and Hove Albion chairman analysed his Scottish club at close quarters for the first time and is impressed with the work of head coach Derek McInnes so far.

Hearts lured McInnes from Kilmarnock in May after he scored highly on Jamestown Analytics’ data. He was also highlighted as a good option for the Edinburgh club last year before they hired Neil Critchley. McInnes is now building momentum at Tynecastle Park having won all of his six competitive games in charge, including Premier Sports Cup ties. That competition returns to the agenda again this weekend when Hearts travel to St Mirren for a tricky last-16 tie.

Bloom, the Brighton and Hove Albion chairman who also own minority shares in Hearts, Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise and Australian club Melbourne Victory, has no issue endorsing McInnes. He explained the importance of a head coach and how the appointment works. The final decision rests with the Tynecastle board.

“There's no doubt that a football club head coach is critical,” said Bloom. “Talking about how important the players are, obviously the head coach knits it all together in so many different ways. The idea is you've got a really good head coach who understands the club and will improve the players. In any recruitment of a head coach, it's just one position. If that, for whatever reason, doesn't quite go right, the club in that particular season may not do so well. So I think with Derek McInnes as Hearts head coach I think it's a really good appointment. From what I've seen from the outside, the start is going really well.

“I wasn't personally involved [in hiring McInnes]. Jamestown Analytics, when it comes to the head coach, will have in-depth discussions and it will give some names to Graeme [Jones, sporting director] and the board. It's up to Graeme and the board to make the decision. It's not just about the data with the head coach, there's so many things which go into it. Again, Jamestown Analytics is an advisory service. The Hearts board will make every decision.”

Hearts transfer business - and Jamestown’s role

The process is no different when signing players. So far this summer, Hearts have nine new recruits in place: Norwegian right-back Christian Borchgrevink, Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis, Portuguese forward Claudio Braga, Irish midfielder Oisin McEntee, Belgian striker Elton Kabangu, Scottish centre-back Stuart Findlay, Albanian winger Sabah Kerjota, Icelandic midfielder Tomas Magnusson and Burkinabe forward Pierre Landry Kabore.

Jamestown has been heavily involved in them all. “It's just advisory service, that's all it does,” added Bloom. “Jamestown Analytics would not want to have an agreement with the club if they weren't using it in the right way. But that doesn't mean: ‘Here are the players, go and get them.’ It's not nearly as simple. There's a lot more to signing of players than just the data. That is a really significant part but, as we all know, you can have a brilliant player and it just doesn't work out.

“For a club like Hearts, they've got to understand or learn the values of the club. They've got to be the right person in the dressing room. They've got to have the right personality. I'm not saying every player that comes in is going to tick every box, that's unrealistic. But what you don't want is somebody coming in who is an excellent player and is a disruptor because that can really hurt you as a football club.

“We certainly want to speak to the player. The manager will typically speak to the player, the head of recruitment or the sporting director will speak to the player. So I'd imagine there's a lot going on there. I don't know exactly how it works with Hearts, but I've got every confidence that they do a lot of due diligence on the player on top of all the analytics that they get from Jamestown.”