{"id":613475,"date":"2025-12-05T08:54:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/613475\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T08:54:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T08:54:16","slug":"hearts-chief-warns-celtic-and-rangers-title-charge-is-just-the-start-as-beni-baningime-contract-timeline-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/613475\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearts chief warns Celtic and Rangers title charge is just the start as Beni Baningime contract timeline emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jambos chief exec Andrew McKinlay believes the ambitious Tynecastle club will only get better\"HeartsHearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Bullish Hearts<\/a> chief exec Andrew McKinlay insists this season\u2019s title charge will not be a one-off.<\/p>\n

The Jambos head to Celtic<\/a> Park on Sunday sitting proudly at the Premiership on goal difference ahead of the reigning champions.<\/p>\n

Hearts were, however, nine clear at one point following a blistering start under new manager Derek McInnes<\/a>, only for a run of just one victory in seven seeing the Bhoys wipe out that advantage \u2013 and with a game in hand as well.<\/p>\n

New investor Tony Bloom lit the blue touch paper at the start of the season by admitting he would be disappointed if Hearts did not win the league within the next decade with the help of his Jamestown Analytics.<\/p>\n

And McKinlay is adamant that what the supporters have seen so far this season is only a taste of what\u2019s to come for the ambitious capital club.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019ve heard a lot of chat that this season\u2019s our big chance to win the league and all this stuff because Rangers and Celtic aren\u2019t as good, and that to me is really interesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have not been listening to what we\u2019ve been saying. We expect to get better and better and better and better. We are surprised this year where we sit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t see this as a one-off. Tony said he expects to win the league within the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe might have adjusted that, I\u2019m not sure, but this is a long-term project to make us, a club and a team, that can compete year on year with Rangers and Celtic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony Bloom<\/p>\n

McKinlay, meanwhile, insists Hearts do not have to trim their 35-strong top-team squad before adding new signings next month.<\/p>\n

Kazakhstan winger Islam Chesnokov, of Kazakh Premier League Tobol, will arrive in the coming days to start training ahead of a January move following signing a pre-contract.<\/p>\n

McKinlay admits finding another right-back is also a priority, with Christian Borchgrevink having so far been hampered by niggling injuries.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe don\u2019t need to get them out first. We would like to move some players out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s fairly clear that our squad is too big. With the model, we\u2019ll always look at the people coming in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the one that\u2019s been talked about is the right-back and we are looking at that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving said that, I thought Borchgrevink was very good [against Kilmarnock] and I got the impression, when he was brought off, from the fan reaction that they were pleased to see him and let\u2019s hope he can go a bit injury-free and we can see more of him at right-back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to remember Chesnokov is coming in as well, which is important. I think everyone\u2019s quite excited about him and looking forward to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking after yesterday\u2019s AGM<\/a>, McKinlay was also asked for any update on any contract talks with Beni Baningime \u2013 with the midfielder one of eight players in the last six months of their contracts.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s an interesting one and, again, people have different views on Beni as a player. And Beni will have his own views.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeni, as you probably know, is a very thoughtful individual and he\u2019ll make his own decision as to what he wants to do come the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jambos chief exec Andrew McKinlay believes the ambitious Tynecastle club will only get betterHearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay(Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[2628,71562,94,47959,1946,1638,7081,79,92473,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-613475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-celtic-fc","9":"tag-derek-mcinnes","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-hearts-fc","12":"tag-rangers-fc","13":"tag-scottish-premiership","14":"tag-scottish-professional-football-league","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tony-bloom","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115666124045427366","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}