MISSING pre-season can be highly damaging to a player’s chances of enjoying a good campaign.
When they return they can, without the benefit of weeks of intensive training and warm-up friendlies against top class opposition, struggle to regain full match fitness and sharpness and produce their best form.
Coming in long after competitive action has got underway can also be difficult for managers.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst made a good start at Rangers after replacing Steven Gerrard last November; his side won their first seven cinch Premiership games and went into the winter shutdown six points clear at the top of the table.
However, when play resumed in January they struggled for consistency. They were held to draws by Aberdeen, Ross County, Dundee United and Motherwell and lost both home and away to Celtic.
Their Glasgow rivals romped to the Scottish title as a result and they missed out on an automatic and highly lucrative spot in the Champions League group stages.
Rangers were phenomenal in the Europa League after Christmas – they beat Borussia Dortmund, Red Star Belgrade, Braga and RB Leipzig and made it through to the final against Eintracht Frankfurt.
But would Van Bronckhorst have fared better domestically, would he have been better placed to negotiate the punishing schedule, if he had spent the previous summer getting to know the strengths, weaknesses and personalities of the players he had inherited from Gerrard?
Would the Govan giants have avoided dropping vital points if the Dutchman had been able to strengthen significantly and integrate his new signings into his squad over a period of time at Auchenhowie before a ball had been kicked in earnest?
We will find out in the coming months.
Midfielder Joe Aribo and defender Calvin Bassey, who were two of Rangers’ outstanding performers during the 2021/22 season, have left for Southampton and Ajax respectively during the close season and will be missed.
But there is great excitement in the stands at Ibrox and pubs along Paisley Road West about the potential of new recruits Antonio Colak, Ben Davies, Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo, John Souttar, Malik Tillman and Ridvan Yilmaz – who collectively set them back over £10m.
And there is genuine optimism among supporters about how the coach who took them to within a couple of penalty kicks of only the second European trophy in their 150 year history will do having settled in to his new surroundings and got a proper pre-season under his belt.
The former Champions League winner and World Cup finalist led Feyenoord to their first Eredivisie in 18 years in his second season at the De Kuip in 2017.
Yet, it is worth noting that Ange Postecoglou hardly had a straightforward start to his tenure at Celtic after arriving here from Japan, where he had been in charge of Yokohama F Marinos, last year either.
He spent the early weeks of his reign frantically trying to identify and bring in individuals who were capable of resurrecting Celtic’s fortunes following their failure to make Scottish football history and complete 10-In-A-Row.
No fewer than 20 players, including first team mainstays Kristoffer Ajer, Scott Brown, Ryan Christie, Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths, headed out the exit door and a total of 14 replacements came in.
Heathrow is quieter on Christmas Eve than Parkhead was last summer.
Even after that turbulent period of mass recruitment, though, Postecoglou was often forced to rely on inexperienced kids in key positions in important outings during the first five months of the season due to the lack of options available to him.
The Greek-Australian came through it all and silenced those who had mocked his appointment – he got his side playing attractive attacking football, won over supporters who had been so incensed the previous season they had protested outside the front door of their stadium and lifted both the Premier Sports Cup and Premiership.
How much better will the defending champions be now that Postecoglou – who has acquired Alexandro Bernabei, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Moritz Jenz, Jota, Daizen Maeda, Aaron Mooy and Benjamin Siegrist at a cost of over £15m in recent weeks - has spent 13 months in Scotland and has an abundance of talent in defence, midfield and attack at his disposal?
The supporters who will flock to the East End tomorrow to see the league flag being unfurled before kick-off in their Premiership opener against Aberdeen are certainly anticipating great things both at home and abroad.
Not since the 2010/11 season have the two Glasgow clubs been so evenly matched. Rangers pipped Celtic to the Premier League on the final day of that memorable campaign with a 5-1 rout of Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. Could it go right to the wire this time around? Do not bet against it.
Rangers beat and then drew with Celtic on the last two occasions they faced them – in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden in April and then in the Premiership at Parkhead in May – so they have proved they are more than a match for the defending champions in a one-off encounter.
If they can show greater consistency against lesser opposition in the coming nine months they can challenge.
Will any of their top flight rivals do likewise? Hearts director of football Joe Savage last week stated that his ultimate ambition was to win the Premiership. But it is unlikely the 37 year duopoly of the trophy will end given their far smaller budget.
Robbie Neilson, who led the Tynecastle club to third place and the Scottish Cup final last term, should be able to build on the progress he has made to date after bringing in Alan Forrest, Kye Rowles, Lewis Neilson, Alex Cochrane, Jorge Grant and Lawrence Shankland. But finishing as the “best of the rest” is the most they can hope for.
Aberdeen, where Jim Goodwin has landed nine new players, Dundee United, who installed Jack Ross as their manager last month, Hibernian, who now have Lee Johnson at the helm, Kilmarnock, who Derek McInnes led straight back into the top flight, and Motherwell and Ross County, who exceeded all expectations last season, will be determined to displace them.
Meanwhile, St Johnstone, who only stayed up after beating Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the play-off final in May, and St Mirren, who also toiled, will be keen not to be sucked into a relegation dogfight.
And what about Livingston? The West Lothian side are, not least on their artificial pitch at the Tony Macaroni Stadium, horrible to play against and difficult to beat. They will get the Premiership up and running today when they host Rangers at home at noon. Could David Martindale’s men throw a spanner in the works from the get go? They have previous for doing so.
Club football shutting down when the World Cup is played in Qatar in November and December will make for an unusual season.
The long-awaited introduction of VAR will also add a different dynamic to proceedings. With a bit of luck, fewer games will be deciding by dubious decisions by referees and there will be an end to the conspiracy theories which have long abounded. But do not hold your breath there.
There is, though, much to look forward to. It promises to be compelling viewing. Let battle commence.
