'No certainty' - Derek McInnes has say on Tony Bloom's Hearts title claim and his 'screaming' team

McInnes is due to meet Bloom, who was at Tynecastle to watch the 2-0 win, on Tuesday. He insisted he was not blindsided by the Brighton owner’s well publicised comments.

“Obviously I knew what Tony was going to say ahead of what you guys heard,” the manager said, with reference to the fans’ forum event on Sunday night when Bloom told those in attendance that he believed Hearts could claim second spot in the Premiership “at least” this season and could win the league title within ten years.

“I have no problem with it at all," said McInnes. "There are so many people, including Tony, who are ambitious and want Hearts to be successful. He has obviously come in with a fresh pair of eyes and has come out and underlined exactly what he wants. He is no different to what we all want at the club. But we have work to do and we need to do our job well to achieve everything that we want. We are coming from a long way back finishing as a bottom six squad last season and we are trying to make progress and I think we can make progress.”

Hearts fans made their feelings towards Bloom known during the match by chanting his name. “He would've loved getting his name sung as well, so he got a name check,” McInnes added. “We knew Tony was coming for a while. I haven't spoken to him yet, I'm meeting him tomorrow. We've had a couple of text conversations. I think he would have been encouraged as well with seeing Tynecastle the way it was. It was a proper Scottish Premier League game tonight with the conditions. It was a wee bit of a throwback to a proper game. I think he would have enjoyed it.”

Hearts started as well as they could have hoped for by claiming the scalp of Aberdeen. A Graeme Shinnie own goal after ten minutes set them on their way and a header from Stuart Findlay with 17 minutes left secured the points on a night when strong winds made flowing football difficult. Nevertheless, Hearts sit top of the Premiership after the first round of fixtures and head to Tannadice on Sunday to face Dundee United. They have now won five consecutive games under McInnes, including four in the League Cup, and have conceded only once.

McInnes was not getting carried away but he has bought into Bloom’s thinking and is happy to have the investor’s player data system at his disposal when signing players, which, he claimed, could indeed make the difference. Another player, Burkina Faso forward Pierre Landry Kabore, is expected to arrive this week.

“I think we're still working off the same budget as we were working in the last couple of seasons here at Hearts,” said McInnes. “But I think where Tony, others and myself think where we can bridge the gap and maybe try and get ahead of others, is the confidence they have in the recruitment. We think we can work smarter and better on that side of it and that in turn will hopefully get us closer to the teams with a lot more money than us and hopefully get us away from teams who have similar budgets to us. But that's not to say it's a certainty. We've got work to do to do that.”

“Just because we've got that doesn't mean there's any certainty with it,” he added. “So we're all aware of that. I'm aware of it. I'm just enjoying working with the players day to day. Like I said, we're a long way off where we want to be, but we're, we've got work to do as I said, but we intend to do our jobs well here.”

McInnes applauded his side’s desire against Aberdeen. “We had a team screaming to win the game of football there,” he said. “Absolutely busting. Even when (Shayden) Morris breaks near the end, there are four of our boys hunting him down. The togetherness that's been shown. I feel as though I've been here longer, to be honest, when I'm working with them. I feel as though the players deserve so much credit to try and harness that kind of family feel. But for sheer commitment, guts, effort, I thought we were 10 out of 10. And it was just all about getting a result.”