{"id":653622,"date":"2025-12-25T06:49:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/653622\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T06:49:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:49:21","slug":"gary-lineker-is-hearts-believer-as-celtic-bad-run-sparks-honest-title-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/653622\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Lineker is Hearts believer as Celtic ‘bad run’ sparks honest title question"},"content":{"rendered":"

The league leaders are six points clear at the summit and their form has caught the eye of Lineker\"GaryGary Lineker discusses Hearts<\/p>\n

Gary Lineker admits he was impressed by league leaders Hearts<\/a> after they swatted aside Rangers last weekend.<\/p>\n

And he has question why the surging Jambos can’t see off Celtic<\/a> in the title race after a lacklustre start under Wilfried Nancy. Derek McInnes<\/a> has lead Hearts six points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership, securing doubles over the Hoops and Rangers already this season.<\/p>\n

It’s the first time since the 1959\/60 season, Hearts have defeated the Glasgow giants four times in a row in the same season and the first time a non-Old Firm side have been top on Christmas Day since 1993. And after tuning into the 2-1 win on Sunday,<\/a> Lineker admitted to being impressed.<\/p>\n

He told Micah Richards on ‘The Rest Is Football’ <\/a>podcast: “I watched Hearts vs Rangers. Well, there was no early Premier League game, was there? So I switched on. I thought I’d watch a bit.<\/p>\n

“Actually, I really enjoyed it. Hearts, Heart of Midlothian, such a great name. They’re now six points clear. I think Celtic, well, Celtic have got a game in hand but they’ve beaten both the Old Firm teams twice this season. So four victories, two against Celtic, two against Rangers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they played really well in the game. The last time one of the Old Firm teams did not win in Scotland, I think I’m right in saying was Aberdeen with a certain Sir Alex Ferguson in charge. I mean, that’s 40 years. 40 years. Can they do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Manchester City defender Richards responded: \u201cYou know, when you watched them though, because a lot of people have been talking about them and how good they’ve been played. Can they sustain it on what you’ve seen?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Hearts'Hearts’ Stuart Findlay celebrates after scoring against Rangers(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Lineker felt that the ‘confidence” that Hearts have build – having only lost one league game this term going into the Edinburgh derby clash with Hibs – could unlock a title triumph.<\/p>\n

The ex-Leicester City and England hero said: “Well I only saw one game, so it’s difficult to know but if they play like that and they played a lot of really good football.<\/p>\n

“Particularly, I thought, in the second half and they knocked it about and had two or three other really good chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of ding-dong and end to end, particularly in the second half. Rangers gave it a go but why not? It\u2019s a good lead that they’ve got.<\/p>\n

“You know how important confidence is. It’s tough to beat those big two up there but Celtic have had that bad run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey lost four on the bounce. They won on Sunday, however, so stops the rot. It is interesting, particularly with the World Cup coming in Scotland as well. I think it’d be good for Scottish football if someone other than Celtic or Rangers won the league\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The league leaders are six points clear at the summit and their form has caught the eye of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,2628,71562,1102,4884,47959,1946,712,1638,1883,16,15,179997],"class_list":{"0":"post-653622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-derek-mcinnes","11":"tag-edinburgh","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-hearts-fc","14":"tag-rangers-fc","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-scottish-premiership","17":"tag-sir-alex-ferguson","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wilfried-nancy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115778878072126413","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653622","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=653622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}