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.
But even these European high points were depressingly fleeting, especially when held up against the backdrop of a domestic game which was so busy self-harming it didn’t stop to think how much damage was being done. And how long those scars would last.
But now, for the first time in a long time, it feels as if our national game is experiencing some kind of awakening after all these years spent sleepwalking into the wilderness. Steve Clarke’s has reinstated Scotland as a tournament team for the first time in more than two decades, even if we’ll all have our noses pressed up against the TV again later this year after a painful World Cup near miss.
Yes, of course it will sting a little when the fun gets going for everyone else in Qatar but that’s mostly because we now have a team which really ought to be performing there given the depth of talent in Clarke’s squad. Previously these events have felt like they are none of Scotland’s business. But not any more.
On the contrary, there will be more of them ahead for these players who are already the most gifted group we’ve seen in dark blue shirts perhaps since the mid 80s or early 1990s. And they’re only just at the beginning. The soaring rise of the likes of Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney and John McGinn to the top level of English football has emboldened a new generation.
The next wave – in Billy Gilmour, Nathan Patterson, Aaron Hickey, Calvin Ramsay, Lewis Ferguson and Josh Doig – are already well on their way having been fast tracked out of the country into Europe’s biggest leagues. But despite this recent exodus, the domestic top flight they have left behind is flourishing and packed full of flowering talent. Which is why there is so much scope for optimism ahead of this weekend’s big kick-off.
Champions Celtic have been transformed into a force of nature in just 12 months under Ange Postecoglou. So much so that the mind boggles as to what the big Aussie has up his sleeve for his second season in charge.
If he sticks to his principles of high tariff, all-guns-blazing attacking football and deploys them in the group stage of the Champions League, then this will be one adventure not to be missed.
Yes, there could be a few bloody noses inflicted along the way but if it is Postecoglou’s intention to make sure his players give as good as they get then these midweek tear-ups are likely to become unmissable, must-watch encounters.
That’s precisely what Rangers provided in last season’s Europa League and their breathless, rampaging run across the Continent offered yet more irrefutable proof of Scottish football’s return to rude health after decades as the sick man of Europe.
If Giovanni van Bronckhorst can negotiate a path through two rounds of qualifiers and join Celtic in UEFA’s elite competition then there will be no disputing it. The only argument left to be settled will remain within our own borders, where his pair are about to slug it out for domestic dominance in what could become a battle for the ages.
Postecoglou caught Rangers napping last time out and resting on their own laurels. Given that the Celtic manager had such a huge job on his hands it’s little wonder if Steven Gerrard and his players took their collective eye off the ball.
But there’s no room for any complacency this time around – you couldn’t fit a Daily Record between the two of them. And both of them know it. Which is why Scottish football should expect these rivals to come storming out of the traps when the new campaign begins.
Only those with their wits about them will avoid being crushed in the stampede. Hearts have shown under Robbie Neilson that they are robust enough to survive at the top end. If they can secure another third place finish and also follow the trail blazed by Rangers into the group stage of the Europa League then it would surely go down as one of the most remarkable campaigns seen at Tynecastle since the mid-1980s.
And if Hibs fail to recover from a series of miscalculations made under Ron Gordon’s stewardship, it may become even more enjoyable for the Gorgie punters. Aberdeen ought to make a vast improvement now that Jim Goodwin has his teeth into the job and Jack Ross will take a good Dundee United side and make it better too. If Ross can bring group stage football to Tayside in UEFA’s Conference League then he’ll have got off to a flying start.
At the other end of the table alarm bells are ringing already at both St Mirren and St Johnstone following uncomfortably sticky summers. They should not make the mistake of hoping Motherwell, Ross County or Livingston might suddenly implode or relying upon Kilmarnock to provide a safety net from relegation.
The Ayrshire club might be returning to the top flight but with Derek McInnes in a hurry to fully restore his own credentials, they are unlikely to hang around at the wrong end of the table for too long. McInnes will have one eye on a top-six finish and the other on bringing European football to Rugby Park.
And so he should do now that the fog of gloom around Scottish football is beginning to lift. For once, this season, the sky might be everyone’s limit.
