They all this bit the ‘scene setter’. It’s a long-held tradition on the eve of every new season with the purpose of whetting the appetite for whatever dramas might be about to unfold now that Scottish football’s curiosity shop is about to reopen its doors and drag us all back inside. Sometimes kicking and screaming.
I must have written more than 30 of them over the last three decades or so. But it’s hard to recall a summer when the sense of anticipation and sheer excitement felt just as heightened as it does right now.
For the most part, especially since the turn of the century, it has amounted to a long, sad story of steady decline with only the very occasional surprise success story to provide some momentary respite. Celtic getting to Seville, Rangers to Manchester. These were both colossal achievements which bucked the trend of decline.
