Optimism abounds and hope springs eternal as a new Scottish Premiership season dawns. That’s the idealistic theory anyway.
It’s a campaign like no other as the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) will be let loose – we just don’t know exactly when – as the Premiership embraces the future or, depending on your viewpoint, makes an irrevocable error.
There’s also a first winter World Cup, with Scotland again envious onlookers, forcing a lengthy Premiership winter break to kick in before we’re out of autumn.
But who cares about the Qatar showpiece anyway when you’ve got a European spectacular with three Scottish clubs guaranteed group-stage football.
And that’s all before you touch on the fact that Motherwell are already on the hunt for a new manager two days before their season opener.
It’s never dull, is it?
Compelling title tussle shapes up
Amid the domestic tumult, some constants remain. The battle for the title – it’s 36 years and counting since we last had a non-Old Firm winner – will again be a compelling slugfest between Glasgow’s two heavyweights.
Champions Celtic approach their trophy defence with an unusual serenity having replaced their traditional summer of chaos.
Direct entry to the Champions League groups – the first time a Scottish side has gone straight in since 2010 – removes the spectre of another fraught qualifier to follow the likes of Midtjylland, Ferencvaros, Cluj and AEK Athens in Celtic’s previous failures.
It has also allowed Ange Postecoglou, who defied expectation and a turbulent start to claim the title in his debut year, to get most of his business done early to galvanise a squad that was stretched to the limit at times.
Celtic’s two biggest signings are players who were already in situ, with winger Jota and centre-back Cameron Carter-Vickers sealing permanent moves after impactful loan spells.
Australia midfielder Aaron Mooy and 21-year-old left-back Alexandro Bernabei, the club’s first Argentine player, are also among the new arrivals. But, as it stands, are Celtic markedly stronger than last season?
Postecoglou’s Celtic 2.0 have added pressure as the side to be toppled, with reshaped Rangers leading a strong pursuit.
Seismic transfer activity has shorn the Ibrox club of two stars – defender Calvin Bassey and midfielder Joe Aribo – from last season’s memorable campaign during which an agonising Europa League final defeat was partly soothed by Scottish Cup success.
Bassey fetched £19.6m when he joined Ajax – shattering the previous record sale of Nathan Patterson to Everton in January – as Rangers’ transfer takings for 2022 soared.
Has the selling stopped there, or will Alfredo Morelos or Ryan Kent, both into the final year of their deals, move on?
Manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has suggested Morelos is minded to stay, which would be another huge boost after Connor Goldson stuck around.
Hearts’ rise to continue?
Van Bronckhorst has spent well in remodelling the squad for his first full campaign at the helm. One of those recruits, John Souttar, was lured on a pre-contract from last season’s best of the rest, Heart of Midlothian, who complete Scotland’s trio of European group-stage entrants.
The Europa League is the target for the Tynecastle men, who also have the safety net of the Europa Conference, while Rangers are two ties away from joining the Champions League big boys for the first time in 12 years.
Hearts have tooled up for their first group-stage venture since 2004 with a recruitment drive that includes bringing Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland back from Belgium.
Having reached the Scottish Cup final and coasted to third place last season, Hearts ought to face more of a fight, with other sides in the league strengthening.
One of those teams is likely to be Aberdeen. The Pittodrie side were strugglers last season and manager Jim Goodwin, with coffers swelled to the tune of £7m by the record sale of Calvin Ramsey to Liverpool and Lewis Ferguson’s Bologna move, has searched far and wide to overhaul the squad he inherited from Stephen Glass in February.
In have come Albania midfielder Ylber Ramadani, North Macedonia forward Bojan Miovski, and English defender Anthony Stewart, the new skipper. A flawless League Cup group stage bodes well for the new-look Dons.
Pressure on already?
However, there are a clutch of clubs whose need for a quick start is great for all the wrong reasons.
Motherwell’s malaise has only deepened in recent days. Having earned a top-five finish last term, despite an alarming run of form during which they won just three league games in 18 after the turn of the year, they are now looking for a new manager. It followed an embarrassing exit at the first hurdle in the Europa Conference League to Sligo Rovers.
It is unclear who will take over permanently from Graham Alexander in the Motherwell dugout – academy director Steven Hammell is interim boss for Sunday’s opener at St Mirren – but the hunt will start promptly to find someone to piece together a campaign this season.
Speaking of pressure, Callum Davidson’s St Johnstone are already out of the League Cup, alongside fellow top-flight sides St Mirren and Hibernian.
Stephen Robinson began his St Mirren tenure with seven league defeats in eight earlier this year before steadying the ship in the run-in. Lee Johnson has only been in the door 10 weeks at Hibs, but he is already on the back foot at a club where previous incumbent Shaun Maloney lasted just four months.
Defeat to third-tier Falkirk was bad enough for Johnson. Hibs’ “administrative error” of fielding ineligible Rocky Bushiri in the draw with Greenock Morton then sealed their League Cup fate and added a layer of farce.
These are curious times at Easter Road. Bushiri was included on a list of departing players in June. A week later, he had signed a three-year permanent deal, triggered by having played a certain number of games on loan last term from Norwich City.
Easing themselves into the new season isn’t an option for Johnson’s Hibs, with an Edinburgh derby in their first home outing.
Will VAR be rolled out sooner after? Your guess is as good as anyone’s.
Originally intended to be implemented when action resumes in December, plans are now afoot to fast-track it to October.
Concerns over the fairness of bringing in such a monumental change during a season have been swept aside by Scottish FA chief Ian Maxwell and his SPFL counterpart Neil Doncaster. VAR is coming because the clubs voted for it, but the fans’ response has been lukewarm at best.
Referees reckon it will make their job easier. They could be in for a rude awakening.
Scottish football is built on controversy and conspiracy theories. Bring on the bedlam.
