Now that the appetisers are out of the way the bumping of gums and gnashing of teeth can properly begin.
Hibs boss Lee Johnson has got himself off to a flyer by complaining about the format of a League Cup competition which his side will play no further part in having been tossed out before their city rivals have even started. If they’re not very careful there will soon be a new definition for the phrase ‘Hibsing it’ – having the brass neck to tell everyone else their house is in a mess while taking match and petrol to your own front door.
If Johnson is feeling the heat already, just three months into the job at Easter Road then at least he can console himself with knowing he’s not the only one. St Mirren and St Johnstone have also been shown the door from the group stage which guarantees Stephen Robinson and Callum Davidson will begin the new campaign with the flames already licking at their toes.
At Motherwell, Graham Alexander has only four days to find a way to extricate himself from the burning wreck he and his players made of last week’s Europa Conference League qualifier at home to Sligo Rovers. If Alexander’s side is scorched before the rest of the Continent has even made it back off the beach, then they will have given the reputation of our game another horrible bloody nose just when we were supposed to be feeling so much better about ourselves.
Yes, with the dignity of Scottish football at stake, Motherwell have a responsibility to do a whole let better in Thursday night’s return leg in the west of Ireland. An away win and a place in the next round is the minimum requirement.
If, heaven forbid, they are sent back home with their tails between their legs then it will be difficult to forgive them for the damage they’ll have done to the credibility of our top flight just when it was starting to feel as if a corner might be being turned. And Alexander will be another manager with some serious explaining to do before the first ball of the domestic league season has even been kicked.
This is not so much the calm before the storm. It’s the storm before the storm. In fact, it really is quite staggering that a third of the clubs in Scotland’s top 12 are already in full on fire fighting mode before the new campaign is properly up and running but all this early chaos also sets the scene for the jaw slackening madness which is inevitably still to come. No one churns out drama quite like the soap opera of Scottish football after all.
Granted, some of the performances could do with a polish but the script and its infinite plot twists are just about unrivalled. So now that we are just days away from another new instalment it’s no surprise the intrigue levels are already beginning to bubble up nicely across the country.
And, of course, the centre of attention is likely to focus on Glasgow, where both Ange Postecoglou and Giovanni van Bronckhorst are about to be thrown into the real world after a touchy-feely introduction to the business of Old Firm management. Somehow, both of these men succeeded in ending last season with their own supporters on a high at the same time. That’s a once in a lifetime anomaly which is unlikely to be repeated any time soon.
While Postecoglou breezed to a title and a League Cup from his first campaign, Van Bronckhorst brought the curtain down by lifting the Scottish Cup just days after an epic near miss in the Europa League final in Seville. In other words, they achieved the near impossible of heading off into the summer without either of them having reason to fret over their own employment prospects.
That’s all about to change now though that they are about to go toe-to-toe all over again knowing that, this time, there will be no such thing as a free hit. No wonder then that both of them have spent the summer tooling up so heavily as an all out arms race has escalated across the river Clyde.
While Postecoglou has moved heaven and earth to sign up last season’s star turns on permanent contracts, Van Bronckhorst is currently overseeing the sort of recruitment drive the big Aussie had to go through this time last summer.So far only Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey have departed from last season’s squad but if Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent were to follow them out of the door then suddenly Van Bronckhorst’s starting line-up would be completely transformed in the space of just one window.
When he completes the signing of Turkish left back Ridvan Yilmaz in the next 24 hours, Van Bronckhorst will have added a total of seven new faces to his group with John Souttar, Antonio Colak, Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo, Mailk Tillman and Ben Davies already in place.
After Saturday’s defeat against Spurs, the Dutchman declared himself perfectly content with his lot. For now. He also carefully added in a caveat which suggested there may be more work still to do if he ends up being relieved of the services of Morelos or Kent - or both - at some point in the next six weeks.
And yet, while both of those game changing talents remain inside the building, Rangers do look to have strengthened their attacking options quite significantly with this summer splurge. Given the huge strides they took all across Europe last season there is genuine reason to believe a return to the Champions League may not be beyond them this time around - with only Belgian minnows Union Saint Gilloise blocking their path to the play-offs.
And the prospect of having two Scottish teams feasting at UEFA’s top table at the same time is a mouthwatering one in terms of the restoration of Scottish football’s international standing. Yes, Motherwell may have carelessly tossed a spanner in the works but there is time for them to put that right before joining Dundee United in the next round.
In any case, if Hearts could complete the set by qualifying for the group stage of the Europa League then we really will know what boom time feels like. Such a heady achievement would certainly give our national sport something worth smiling about.
But, for the time being, let the moaning and groaning commence.
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