When one plus one equals By Donald C Stewart

Date: 7th August 2026

When one plus one equals

By Donald C Stewart

AI is the scourge of academics and schools, the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. Or it is the saviour of many people who feel that a ChatGBT email is likely to capture all that they want, or an application for a job through Claude is going to give them a better chance of employment. No matter what your view of AI, one of the things that has been part of football for quite a wee while is the computer.

The manager and coaches at the side of the pitch looking over various plays and replays, tapping on screens, pointing to people and places on the pitch, and having discussions, heated sometimes, over what it is that should happen next.

We have ended up with Jamestown Analytic (which according to a Google search is highly secretive…) at Hearts as the Guide Dog for success, as last year they managed to support Derek McInnes and Hearts into second place, almost snatching the league title away from Celtic. As it turned out, reality hit and it was the other way around and Celtic snatched it from the Jambos.

So, I was interested at the Opta supercomputer predictions for the Scottish Premiership for 2026-27.

It will come as no surprise that they are suggesting that the top six at the end of this year are going to be precisely the same as the top six from last year.

The difference at the top is they suggest Rangers will be second and Hearts shall drop to third.

What is slightly more surprising is their predictions for down the bottom end. Automatic relegation place goes to Dundee, whilst in the playoffs shall be Aberdeen. Now anybody who knows the history of Aberdeen, Celtic and Rangers and what connects them is the fact that they have been in the top league for their entire histories.

So, having Aberdeen in 11th place means that the supercomputer gets some kind of traction in the media. Well, in certain sections of the media, possibly more north-eastern media than anywhere else because it doesn’t seem to have caused a clanger moment down in the central belt.

Hearts ending up third is also hardly a surprise given they have lost so many people during the summer and a little bit of their mojo as well given their European faltering at the hands of Sturm Graz.

But the more important aspect of all of this is, of course, that technology is, again, interceding rightly and wrongly in football.

As we saw over the World Cup, VAR is alive and kicking people still. People at the top, like Gianni Infantino, continues to kick at the game, like a toddler trying to gain a parent’s attention.

Concern will always be raised, whenever any form of technology is suggested, by people, like me, who are a little long in the tooth. It’s often put down to us all being Luddites and that we want this world to go back to the 1950s with leather fitba’s that are likely to break your neck as easily as cause dementia.

That’s not the case.

Technology has a part to play. Of course it does. It’s 2026, not 1926. And even in 1926, I’m quite sure technology played a part then as well.

It’s just that the technology that they had then was nowhere sophisticated as it is now. Maybe it was just talking about a board being held up to announce substitutions, or just discussing having substitutions, or maybe a new way of turnstyling was being radically suggested…

Whatever it was, as I gaze upon the various human predictions in the likes of the Daily Record, the Scotsman, the Herald and various other websites you see what a computer and technology can’t. People who have watched and played the game for years understand the significance of the Aberdeen team being harder to beat under Robinson, that Celtic’s last minute Supermarket Sweep dash might nit cut it, that McInnes is a patient man and the last quarter might be more significant than the first and Hearts getting third might right now be a result, as many think they shall tumble.

But it’s a bit of fun. And arguing over the veracity of anyone’s predictions are always likely to cause debate/argument/ fall out. Aint it great real fitba is back, by the way?

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Posted in: Fan's Blog, Latest News

Tags: AI, Hearts, oor Donald, Rangers, Scottish fans, Scottish football