Terry Butcher: If Hearts split the Old Firm I'll eat whatever you

HEARTS' phenomenal start to the SPL hasn't exactly gone unnoticed - but suggestions they can now seriously challenge the Old Firm's dominance are nothing short of ridiculous.

I have real admiration for George Burley, who seems to be putting the money of the club's wealthy Lithuanian backer Vladimir Romanov to good use.

But to be honest I couldn't begin to pronounce let alone spell some of the names of the players George has brought in. If I could, and was playing Scrabble, I'd probably land 5,000 points on the board.

But believe me if Hearts sustain their form throughout the season and split Rangers and Celtic at the top, I will eat anything you put in front of me.

Rumours are rife they are already breaking with tradition and paying colossal salaries to their players in an attempt to match the phenomenal spending power of the top two.

But if you apply some realism to the situation they are never going to be able to sustain that over a long period.

To put things in perspective, I could probably pay my entire playing staff at Motherwell their salaries plus their bonuses for what one highly-paid player at Rangers earns in a season.

The gulf between the Old Firm and the rest will never be bridged unless Roman Abramovich suddenly decides to sell Chelsea and bankrolls one of the smaller clubs in Scotland.

So, as much as I admire what George is trying to achieve at Hearts, the best he's looking at is third place in the league, believe me.

Anyway, while I will be travelling with Radio 5 to cover England's friendly against Denmark on Wednesday night, Scotland are in action against Austria.

I get the impression it's a fixture Walter Smith could have done without, to be honest.

He's omitted some of the big players to take a shadow squad to Austria and if he didn't have an obligation to fulfil a fixture he inherited I suspect he would have probably scrapped the game completely.

Someone said to me the other day that Scotland are a team going nowhere. Well they are certainly going nowhere next summer when the World Cup gets under way in Germany, that's a fact.

In all honesty though I don't believe Walter's problems are as dire as people like to make out and if anybody can turn things round they couldn't have appointed a better man for the job.

During his short tenure in the post he has turned the tide of discontent but the real problem he has to overcome is finding a striker who can put the ball into the back of the net.

And it's not something he's going to achieve overnight.

He has some talented youngsters coming through, though, particularly the Hibs pairing of Derek Riordan and Gary O'Connor.

Riordan can be something special if he maintains his form.

I know clubs in England are keeping close tabs on his progress at the moment. But the fundamental problem Scotland has is that talent really is no substitute for experience.

And it will take time for youngsters to come through and truly establish themselves at international level.

Enough of Scotland's problems.

Next Saturday the first Old Firm derby kicks off and it will certainly kick off for the losers, that's for sure.

Rangers are in the ascendancy at the moment but following two wins on the bounce for Celtic the criticism of Gordan Strachan has subsided momentarily. Mind you if he loses against Rangers you can expect an avalanche of criticism to follow.

It's a game that proves invariably hard to call.

In recent years Celtic have had the upper hand in the derbies but you suspect the tide is about to turn in favour of Rangers.

It's an uncomfortable thought for Strachan but if I had to hedge my bets I think Alex McLeish may sleep easier come Saturday night.

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