The Scottish season gets underway this coming weekend. Yes, our season begins in July. Only 3 weeks after the World Cup Final and a week before the Edinburgh Festival starts we?re dusting down the scarfs and picking up the new season tickets.

Celtic actually play away to both Yokohama F Marinos and Chelsea in ?pre-season? friendlies after the league has kicked off.

The early start to the season seems akin to drinking in the morning to me. You might want to get down to it, but there?s no big rush and other folk will look at you funny.

But it?s here now so might as well embrace it.

With money tight the Old Firm have been looking around for the footballing equivalents of Lidl and Aldi?s to snap up some bargains. There are no big name arrivals, but Jiri Jarosik at Celtic and Jeremy Clement at Rangers could both make an impact.

In the close season Celtic lost Roy Keane, John Hartson and Dion Dublin. Stilian Petrov seems sure to follow suit. With the Bulgarian ready to join Portsmouth it becomes increasingly obvious that even playing for a club at the lower end of the Premiership is a better option than playing in Scotland for the league?s better players.

John Hartson will be a big loss for Celtic. He was a guy who loved pulling on the hoops and bagged plenty of vital goals in his time. He could also have played another season or two here with no problems.

In the south of Glasgow Rangers experienced something of a coup in landing Frenchman Paul Le Guen to replace Alex McLeish as manager. Le Guen has the arrogant swagger of a winner having led Lyon to three French titles. He?s already rocked the players by telling them to stop going to their favourite curry house for a feed.

On the continent this directive would probably be needless as the idea of curry on the menu is quite alien for most of Europe?s top players. But the Scottish media seemed stunned that a man in charge of a group of highly paid athletes could make such a demand.

Forward Kris Boyd is quoted as 2/1 favourite to finish top scorer in the SPL this season. Some of the Rangers faithful seem unconvinced by the 22 year old, despite his 20 goals for them last season. Add to this the 17 he bagged for Kilmarnock before his January transfer and he looks exactly the kind of player the Teddy Bears need.

Some fans though see him as ?just a guy who can score goals?. In the same way perhaps that Red Adair was just a guy who could put fires out. He?s not the big name that some supporters are looking for but he?s proven himself as a goalscorer up to now and what?s more he?s Scottish. Good Scottish strikers have been hard to come by as of late and perhaps the best two are now playing on both sides of the Old Firm.

Kenny Miller becomes only the third Post-War player to have turned out for both halves of the Old Firm, after Alfie Conn and Mo Johnston. Conn and Mojo were both firmly established names and fans? favourites during their first spells in Glasgow.

By contrast Miller was little more than a fringe player in his years with Rangers. He did score 5 goals in one game against St Mirren in November 2000 and is still the last Scotsman to score in the Champions League when he netted against Monaco just three days later.

He?s been outstanding for Scotland in the past year or so and if he can recapture that form in the league the Celtic support shouldn?t have many problems accepting him as one of their own.

Away from the Old Firm last season?s most interesting story was that of Hearts and their ever controversial owner Vladimir Romanov. The odds of current first team coach Valdas Ivanauskas still being in place at the season?s end aren?t good. Three managers last season didn?t do them any favours in their bid for the title. However, finishing second and landing that spot in the Champions? League qualifiers was more than most Jambos could have hoped for a year ago. As such the Tynecastle faithful are now seriously looking toward a title winning season.

They seem to have a good team spirit as it was tested plenty in the last campaign. If they can just get a bit of stability this term they might be able to sustain their challenge further into the New Year than they managed in the last campaign.

Edinburgh rivals Hibs have developed a nasty habit of having to sell on their best players. Garry O?Connor, Derek Riordan and Gary Caldwell have all left Easter Road this calendar year. More young players are sure to come through the ranks this season but it won?t be enough to mount any kind of charge on the title.

It?s hard to get excited about the middle of the SPL. Teams like Motherwell, Aberdeen and Dundee United shouldn?t be fighting relegation, but there?s no real chance of them topping the table either.

The top six breakaway is one of the silliest things to happen to the Scottish game. After everyone has played each other three times the league then breaks in two for the last five matches. It provides the mediocre some kind of target to gibber about in post match interviews. We?re forced to listen all season to managers of mid table sides saying they?re aiming for a ?top six place?. Ultimately all finishing in ?the top six? means is that you get an extra game against both Rangers and Celtic. But perhaps I?ll rant more about that some other time.

St Mirren are the new boys this season and there?s no reason to think they won?t go straight back down to the First Division. Falkirk and Dunfermline will probably be the teams to overhaul if they?re going to stay up.

The likely candidates to replace them next year are Gretna. Having romped the Second Division in record time last year, adding to the Third Division title the season before that, a hat trick of league titles is not unthinkable. As Scottish Cup runners up to the Champion?s League bound Hearts, they are also in the UEFA Cup.

Predicting who will win the SPL title is a bit like tossing a coin and shouting heads or tails. Tip Rangers or Celtic it makes little difference. This season however, we can opt for predicting that the coin will land on its side. Just like Hearts lifting the trophy it?ll never happen, but would be lovely if it did.

As for the national team we?ve become a lot more optimistic under Walter Smith than we ever dared dream under Berti Vogts. Smith?s side look confident and capable of playing good attacking football. Like Craig Brown before him Vogts was a master of sending the team out to defend badly then hailing the resultant heavy defeat as ?a good lesson learned?.

The fans? enthusiasm has been dampened slightly due to a European Championship qualifying group that includes World Cup winners Italy, runners up France and quarter finalists Ukraine. I can?t remember a qualifying section when I realised from the outset that we?ll never get through. No bad thing as optimism is the Scottish national supporter?s worst enemy.

The group guarantees to serve up some exciting games with France visiting Hampden in October. The campaign kicks off against the Faroe Islands at Celtic Park on September 2nd.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 29th, 2006 at 9:00 am and is filed under Scottish Football News. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.