Hearts: Tony Bloom’s Starlizard can take club to new level

The last time Hearts were searching for a new manager, they got no further than the man they had called up from the club’s B team to act as interim boss.

Eighteen months on, the story looks likely to be very different – and it could be the first of the decisions that could make Hearts serious rivals to Celtic and change the landscape of Scottish football.

Hearts have been in talks with Brighton & Hove Albion owner Tony Bloom about becoming a minority shareholder and investing a multi-million pound amount in the club.

While Bloom’s investment would be welcome, it is what the 54-year-old would bring with him that would be the game-changer.

Starlizard is the data analysis company set up by Bloom that has turned Brighton from the League One club he bought in 2009 into contenders for a Champions League place little more than a decade later.

Bloom made his fortune from betting, using Starlizard to predict the fair odds for each market and identify discrepancies.

So when he bought the Seagulls, he decided to employ the statistical expertise that had made him a millionaire in the football club he had supported all his life.

The results have been extraordinary.

Brighton have become the smartest recruitment operation in the global game, buying unknown players for relative pennies and selling them for up to £115m.

Moises Caceido (£100m rising to £115m), Marc Cucurella (£60m), Ben White (£50m), Alexis Mac Allister (£35m rising to £55m) and Yves Bissouma (£30m) all arrived in Sussex unheralded and left as some of the top players in the Premier League.

It is an operation that might be, if anything, getting even better. If the Seagulls put left-back Pervis Estupinan, defensive midfielder Carlos Baleba, winger Kaoru Mitoma or forward Joao Pedro for sale, Europe’s elite clubs would be queuing up.

Baleba, the player Starlizard’s algorithms had identified as the perfect replacement for Caicedo, is likely go for a fee approaching that of the £115m man.

Brighton’s recruitment is an operation so admired that new Chelsea owners Clearlake wanted it for their own.

They hired manager Graham Potter and five of his coaching staff. They lured Brighton’s head of recruitment Paul Winstanley. And then they brought in Winstanley’s replacement Sam Jewell.

But they did not have the crucial cog in Brighton’s success; Starlizard’s application of its data-driven analysis of players across the world to inform clever recruitment.

So while Brighton continue to pick up gems such as Newcastle United winger Yankuba Minteh – sent on loan to Feyenoord last season – and Turkish left-back Ferdi Kadıoglu, Chelsea continue their haphazard approach.

A new manager rather than new players is the priority for Hearts now, though, and the Tynecastle club have indicated Starlizard will be involved in the search.

They have a good recent track record in that field too, employing ex-Ostersunds and Swansea boss Potter, then out-of-work Roberto de Zerbi – who interested Liverpool and Bayern Munich this summer before switching to Marseille – and seemingly striking gold with the relatively unknown Fabian Hurzeler.

It is a list of appointments that suggest Hearts will hire well this time around.