There’s been an encouraging amount of promise shown by a number of teams outside the Big Two in these embryonic stages of the season. With some big promises being made too.
Just how wonderful would it be if these early shoots of new life and stronger regrowth could carry on and bring about a campaign in which widespread jeopardy and disruption and unpredictability became part and parcel of the national sport?
Where the buzz you can feel in the air around the likes of Tynecastle, Easter Road and Tannadice right now became the natural way of things – the magic carpet that carried supporters through the turnstiles, into their seats and then onto higher planes – rather than a mirage that fizzles out by the time the dark nights roll in.
Where the electricity that filled the streets of Aberdeen for that Sunday parade in May, after their first Scottish Cup win in 35 years, became something capable of really propelling the club forward rather than a one-off power surge.
Where it all became, well, just interesting again.
Maybe it’s Hearts’ new investor Tony Bloom to blame for all of this crazy thinking, turning up at that Q&A in the Gorgie Suite last week and convincing folk that Scottish football is going to be turned upside-down and that the Jam Tarts will be winning the title within a decade.
Hearts investor Tony Bloom has promised to challenge the Old Firm stranglehold
Hibs were impressive in their 2-0 away victory over Partizan Belgrade
In normal circumstances, it would be easy to scoff. Celtic have way more money at their immediate disposal than anyone else. They’ve won the league 13 times in the last 14 years. A tally of five Trebles in nine seasons suggests we had never been in a period in which one club has exerted such a chokehold on the game.
In most cases, Rangers, with a competent structure in place following the takeover by American businessman Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises, simply getting their act together and putting up a fist of it represents the scale of ambition in hoping for better things.
Yet, why should it stop there? Bloom has taken Brighton into Europe and the top half of the English Premier League. He’s helped Union Saint-Gilloise win the Belgian title with a smaller budget than their competitors.
Who’s to say he can’t repeat the dose at Hearts? They have a solid manager in place in Derek McInnes and a recruitment set-up that seems capable of identifying capable talent that needn’t break the bank.
They looked a team moving in the right direction in their Monday night win over Aberdeen in and should get better.
Celtic are struggling to match Brendan Rodgers’ ambition in the transfer market
Jimmy Thelin has credit in the bank at Aberdeen after their Scottish Cup triumph
It’s what happened elsewhere later in the week, though, that really got the juices flowing. Hibs’ 2-0 win over Partizan Belgrade in Serbia in the Conference League qualifiers offered real evidence of a team that came back from the dead to finish third in the table last term shifting its progress onto another level.
Martin Boyle reinforced his importance to the cause with his 100th and 101st goals for the club, but there are real reasons to believe Hibs should become more of a force to be reckoned with this term. Manager David Gray has his feet under the table and a new contract signed after proving he has the mentality and ability to cope with adversity and come through with flying colours.
It’s going to be a big season for him and for 22-year-old Kieron Bowie up front. As discussed here some time ago, this lad has a real chance of going places. One of the first should be the senior Scotland squad, because the nation is crying out for a proper centre-forward with his attributes.
Added to that, though, the arrival of record transfer Thibault Klidje promises much and Grant Hanley should provide some real steel in defence. With early tensions between club chairman Ian Gordon and Bill Foley’s Black Knight group appearing to have been ironed out, Hibs are a club with a strong platform to build upon.
Dundee United’s 2-2 draw at Rapid Vienna on the same night was equally inspiring. They still face an almighty battle to make it through to a Conference League play-off, but they showed terrific resilience and those scenes in the away end were biblical.
Scotland prospect Kieron Bowie has started the season in fine form with Hibernian
Dundee United new striker Zac Sapsford already looks like a promising talent
How heartening it is to hear of United fans discussing the Rapid game as an away trip to rival the jollies they enjoyed back in the halcyon days of the 1980s.
Even going to the home leg of their tie with UNA Strassen of Luxembourg, there was a great atmosphere around Tannadice – as well as the city, in general – and a good feeling about the direction of travel at the club under manager Jim Goodwin.
Sure, there has been criticism of the focus on signing foreign talent, but there can’t be many complaints over Zac Sapsford.
Of them all, the 22-year-old Australian, whose finish for United’s second goal in Austria was terrific, is already looking like someone who could blossom into a special talent and one capable of creating considerable profit.
Over and above domestic tussles, what would it do for the reputation of Scottish football, the national coefficient and just the general feeling around the scene if four – or even five – of our clubs could be involved in group-stage competition in Europe?
Elsewhere in the Premiership, though, there are other subplots worth following. St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson states, with admirable boldness, that the return of Keanu Baccus means that he has potentially the second best midfield in the competition behind Celtic.
At Motherwell, anyone watching their 1-1 opening-day draw with Rangers could not have failed to be impressed. New coach Jens Berthel Askou is bedding in a brave, passing strategy that sliced the Ibrox side apart time and time again and should have delivered more than just a point. Fir Park could be a tough place to visit in the months ahead.
Jens Berthel Askou has Motherwell playing an entertaining style of football
Listen, if you really had to bet your house on it, you’d go for the same old, same old again. Celtic winning the title, Rangers coming second, albeit making it a bit tighter than last term, and everyone else just battling it out for the spoils below.
Yet, there is reason to believe it could be different.
Celtic have all the financial advantages, but their lack of action in the transfer market speaks to a club that really does not share the ambition of its manager Brendan Rodgers. A new-look Rangers should believe that they are capable of rivalling them.
But a truly exciting league is about more than just two teams at the top. If Hearts and Hibs and United and others can create a scenario where you enter the weekend believing no result is cut-and-dried, what a rocket that would send through the game.
A world where Celtic – or, if they can fix themselves up, Rangers – are not sure of going anywhere and securing the points is a world that would be far more enticing that the one we’ve had for the past while.
The Old Firm, for differing reasons, look like they can be got at. One is rebuilding completely. The other isn’t refreshing itself and regenerating enough.
That’s where Aberdeen enter the mix. Finishing fifth last term was a disappointment, but manager Jimmy Thelin got his tactics bang-on against Celtic in the Scottish Cup final and gave himself some much needed breathing room.
He’s made some signings and needs to get things moving quickly to keep enthusiasm high among the Red Army.
Celtic, of course, hit town at lunchtime today and what better way to light the touchpaper on the new campaign than by doing them over again.
And what better way to show those of us hoping, albeit tentatively, that this might be a campaign of shock results and unexpected stories and all the thrills and spills we see of other leagues that we haven’t just been taken in by Tony Bloom and all his intoxicating chit-chat.
A Premiership made up of packed houses, hot atmospheres and everyone in the top five or six landing knockout blows on each other from first day to last is the dream, really. Please let it be so.
United would be smart to hand impressive Goodwin a new deal
Hands up. There were those of us less than convinced when Dundee United opted to hand Jim Goodwin a permanent contract back in 2023 after sliding towards relegation in the wake of five consecutive losses at the business end of the season.
He’d just come off a nightmarish end to an underwhelming stay at Aberdeen. There’s no need to rake over the disasters of Darvel again and the long walk of shame across the pitch at Easter Road after a six-goal sizzling. We all remember how it ended for him at the Dons.
Even on the return back from the Championship at the first time of asking with United, the title battle with Raith Rovers was a heck of a lot closer than it really should have been.
Jim Goodwin salutes the Dundee United supporters following their 2-2 draw in Vienna
However, Goodwin has clearly built something good at Tannadice over the past two-and-a-bit years.
Finishing fourth in the Premiership last term was an excellent achievement and, despite all the tedious criticism over signing too many foreign players, his side’s 2-2 midweek draw away to Rapid Vienna in Conference League qualifying was another big step forward.
It rang alarm bells yesterday, then, when a report appeared about English clubs monitoring his situation as a result of only 10 months remaining on the contract extension he signed last November.
The Irishman is described as keen to remain on Tayside. If that really is the case, it’s hard to argue that he hasn’t done enough to deserve a quick sitdown and a decent offer.
United owner Mark Ogren has overseen some horrific decisions during his time at the helm and can’t afford to let uncertainty over his manager’s future become a diversion from the long-overdue forward momentum of the past 12 months.
Tisdale will have some explaining to do if Celtic’s recruitment team fail to deliver
Four days to go now until Celtic have to submit their squad for the Champions League qualifying play-off with Kairat Almaty or Slovan Bratislava and manager Brendan Rodgers admits there is nothing imminent with new signings.
In his weekly media briefing on Friday, he conceded he simply doesn’t know if any of the wingers or strikers he needs – never mind players in other positions – will be in the door. Hasn’t the foggiest.
Paul Tisdale has kept a low profile since being appointed Celtic’s head of football operations
What was worthy of note, though, was that he dropped Paul Tisdale’s name into the mix, mentioning that ‘I know the work Paul and his staff are putting in.’
Tisdale, Celtic’s head of football operations, lives miles under the radar. Russian military submarine are more detectable. Most Hoops fans probably don’t know what the one-time Exeter City manager even looks like, never mind what his job actually entails.
Be sure, though, that, if the club do end up going into that £40million-plus shoot-out on August 20 with the forward line they have at the moment, Tisdale and his responsibilities will come for infinitely greater scrutiny.
