Tony Bloom outlines how Jamestown Analytics are helping Hearts - and Derek McInnes' role in transfers

The Brighton owner completed a £9.86million deal in June to secure a 29 per cent stake in the Gorgie club in non-voting shares.

The Tynecastle outfit are in partnership with the same Jamestown Analytics data firm that has underpinned the success the 55-year-old English entrepreneur has enjoyed in establishing the Seagulls in the Premier League and as a shareholder of freshly-crowned Belgian champions Union Saint-Gilloise.

Hearts, whose new signings this summer include Christian Borchgrevink, Alexandros Kyziridis, Claudio Braga, Oisin McEntee, Elton Kabangu, Stuart Findlay, Sabah Kerjota, Tomas Bent Magnusson and Pierre Landry Kabore, have started the season unbeaten in six games and with six points from six in the William Hill Premiership.

Bloom, who recently declared himself confident that in time Hearts will emulate Union Saint-Gilloise by becoming title winners and play in the Champions League, said: “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.”

Bloom revealed the part Jamestown Analytics has in player recruitment.

He said: “It’s just an advisory service, that’s all it does. It’s a lot. 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’s 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.

“They’ve got to, 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.”