Celtic will travel to Spain to take on a very strong Villarreal outfit, which finished second in La Liga and, even though they probably won’t repeat their feats of last season, have strengthened since. A double header against reigning European champions Manchester United then waits. Despite increasing their impressive home record, Celtic now need to win in Spain to avoid a scenario where it is imperative they take six out of six against Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.

Villarreal boast a strong selection of players, including Euro 2008 winners Marcos Senna, Joan Capdevila and Santi Carzola. Along with former Manchester United forward Giuseppe Rossi and new signings Edmilson, formerly of Barcelona, and Joseba Llorente.

One thing Celtic do have in their favour after the opening round of matches is that the other match also ended in a draw, leaving the group wide open.

In the first half of Wednesday night’s matches Celtic looked shaky. Brown was caught out on a few occasions, Nakamura was as ineffective as I have ever seen him, and Scott McDonald struggled to trouble the opposition defence.

To top it all off Barry Robson failed to score from the spot after Maloney was brought down in the box.

In fact it was Aalborg who looked the most likely to break the deadlock, aided by the inexplicable display from Andreas Hinkel. The German full back was recently called up for his national side but on this performance he has surely played himself out of it again. His stray passes presented Aalborg with two opportunities, one of which should have been converted when Jeppe Curth found himself one-on-one with Boruc. Instead he pulled his shot wide.

One shining light for Celtic in the opening period was Georgios Samaras. He consistently troubled the Danish side, linking well with Shaun Maloney, although he maybe should have done better with a few of his chances.

Celtic came out a different side in the second half and were unlucky not to go ahead in the seventy-fifth minute, when Scott, or Scotty as the BBC Scotland presenters annoyingly refer to him, Brown had a legitimate goal chopped off for offside. However, the single goal they needed to secure the points continued to elude them.

Motherwell boss Mark McGhee had reason to be more optimistic than his Celtic counterpart, even though his side lost 1-0 away to French outfit AS Nancy. Whereas Celtic will struggle to progress, the difference in format for the UEFA Cup means that the Steelmen have a much more realistic chance of finding themselves in the draw for the next round of their competition.

The heroics of goalkeeper Graeme Smith prevented Nancy from running riot on the night and putting the tie out of reach. His penalty save and his magnificent tip onto the bar from a long range Monsef Zerka effort were the two that stood out.

As expected, McGhee adapted his tried and trusted 4-3-3 formation and instead opted for a more solid 4-4-2, which also worked as a 4-5-1 at times, in an attempt to frustrate the French side.

And frustrate they did, for the first 40 mins at least. Nancy coach Pablo Correa rested a few of his star players ahead of a busy schedule and it wasn’t until the introduction of Issair Dia and Marc-Antoine Fortune that Nancy began to really work the Motherwell defence.

I’m not sure who was impersonating Paul Quinn at right back but he dealt with everything thrown at him during the 90 minutes. Quinn has been one of the reasons ‘Well have leaked plenty of goals so far this campaign but he can take encouragement from this performance.

The one thing that will worry Mark McGhee is that his side didn’t manage many chances and failed to obtain a single shot on target.

Back home they will be expected to push forward a lot more but this could be their undoing as Nancy posses the players in their ranks who could punish Motherwell and it is unlikely that Correa will rest his key players for the second leg, with the tie on a knife edge.

As it stands for the two sides left flying the flag for Scotland amongst Europe’s elite, it would be a tremendous achievement if any of them progressed to the next round of their respective competitions but I would rather be in Motherwell’s shoes than Celtic’s.

It is crucial that the next three matches of Celtic’s “challenge” yield at least four points, which would leave them in the position where they would most definitely still need to record wins against Aalborg away and Villarreal at home. Otherwise the post-group stage of the UEFA is about the best they can hope for.

It has been a rather indifferent start to the league campaign for the Dons. This time last season they were in the same position, eighth, but were two points worse off. After looking as though they would finish the season in the bottom half of the table they managed to sneak past Falkirk and Hearts with less than a minute of football to spare before the split. In the end a fourth place finish done nothing more than to flatter Jimmy Calderwood and his side.

Despite being slightly better off after five matches this season, there seems to be more that should worry the Aberdeen support. Calderwood has resorted to an effective, if unattractive, system of defending deep away from home, which has brought rewards in the shape of two 1-0 victories at St Mirren and Motherwell.

However, a 1-1 draw with Rangers remains their solitary point from three home games and they were lucky to even achieve that as assistant referee ruled out DaMarcus Beasley’s perfectly legitimate goal in the dying minutes of the match.

Since the departure of Russell Anderson to Sunderland Reserves, it appears that whenever Aberdeen venture forward in matches their fragile back four is exposed. The evidence of this has been even more apparent this season - during the team’s opening day defeat to fellow northerners Inverness Caley Thistle, the first time they have ever beaten Aberdeen, and the more recent defeat to SPL new-boys Hamilton.

Many players left and just as many signed for the club during the close season but one area Calderwood seems to have missed, yet again, is his central defence. Andy Considine has proved time and time again that he is not good enough and his concentration cost his side once when his horrendous attempt to clear a simple long ball resulted in Hamilton’s winner.

Zander Diamond, who has struggled with injury for the early part of this season, is more commanding than Considine but is still prone to error and can often get himself, and his team, into trouble with his temper. Lee Mair is a squad player at best and Scott Severin is a central midfielder who can play in defence in emergencies, although he wasn’t up to much on Saturday.

Calderwood began the match with a back four of Foster, Severin, Considine and Mulgrew. Two of these – Severin and Foster – are naturally midfielders and it showed. Charlie Mulgrew at left back was a good capture for Aberdeen but if the manager continues with these three alongside him, even he will struggle.

Where Calderwood has neglected some parts of his side when it comes to recruiting players, he has been slightly unlucky with other areas. Lee Miller was in terrific form for Hearts before his poor spell at Dundee United and he has still not hit the form expected of him going into, what is now, his third season with the club. Jamie Smith was also an impressive signing, although he is injury prone and finds himself on the sidelines just as much as he finds himself in the starting XI.

For every decent player Calderwood had brought to the club, there seems to be two or three poor ones. Lee Mair and Stuart Duff were deemed surplus to requirements at Dundee United before they signed on at Pittodrie, while Jeffrey De Visscher and Derek Young have hardly been revelations. Others like David Bus and Jonathan Kurrant barely even appeared before they were shown the door.

Time will tell if the likes of Jared Hodgkiss, Tommy Wright (who has an incredibly poor disciplinary record), Mark Kerr and Gary McDonald will be good enough to replace Michael Hart, Chris Clark, Barry Nicholson and Steve Lovell, who all departed earlier this year.

When Calderwood was appointed manager in 2004, it followed a period of six managers in ten years. In the four seasons since, Calderwood had managed a top six finish each time and even secured a European spot at the end of the 2006/07 season, which took them beyond the group stages of the UEFA Cup.

Despite his relative success, it is looking increasingly like the club has been taken as far as it can by Calderwood. Four top six finishes out of four really isn’t as impressive as it sounds for a club like Aberdeen and these four finishes have only brought European football to Pittodrie once. Last season was their best chance in a long time of bringing home some silverware but they exited both cup competitions at the semi final stage, one of which was a 4-3 defeat to First Division Queen of the South and would have seen them in Europe this season had they reached the final.

Should Calderwood need replaced, it would surely be time for Stuart Milne to spend a little more money on a manager with a bigger reputation who is able to attract better quality than players in the Dutch second division and guys that other SPL sides have no use for. For now, Calderwood is not under any pressure from his employers but would be if Aberdeen were now to go on a poor run of results.

The next set of fixtures appear more difficult than the five the club began their campaign with, including trips Celtic Park and Tynecastle either side of Hibs at home. An interesting month at Aberdeen begins on Saturday lunchtime, with a match against a Dundee United side desperate for their first win of the season.

Scotland tonight swap the blistering heat of Macedonia for the more familiar cold and wet weather of Iceland. However criticism of the manager, rather than the build up to the match, has dominated the headlines over the last few days.

After only one competitive match, George Burley has been subject to a media campaign, which is doing nothing more than pilling the pressure on both him and his team. We lost away to Macedonia, big deal! McLeish lost in Georgia, Brown drew both in Latvia and in France against Estonia and MacLeod lost 3-1 to Peru and drew 1-1 with Iran.

In the same stints as managers McLeish recorded a famous victory in France; Brown managed wins against Germany and England and MacLeod beat the Netherlands in the same tournament as the two aforementioned results of his tenure.

We are Scotland, this is what we do. We frustrate the bigger teams, are capable of attaining hard fought draws and can sometimes even come away with a victory. Conversely, when we go into a match as favourites we either obtain a victory, but always the hard way, or we royally mess it up.

So to berate the manager - who has not had things made easy for him - after four matches, for continuing the trend that Scotland have set for around 30 years, is absolutely ridiculous.

Burley may still turn out to be a disaster, not all managers who have success at club level transform that into international level but we should surely give him time. The fact that his employers ridiculously allowed Macedonia, two years after bowing to similar pressure from Ukraine, to get their way after throwing their toys out of the pram, made his job harder before he was even chosen to do it. People say that it evens out as we then have a period where we will have two home games in a row but get off to a bad start and it’s an uphill battle all the way.

Another thing constraining Burley, is the amount of injuries and call offs he has had. In his first four matches he has had nowhere near a full strength squad to choose from for any of them. Arguably our best player, Alan Hutton, is out long term which leaves our already weak defence looking even more vulnerable.

Despite these problems, Burley should not be exempt from any criticism. He has attempted to field a more attacking Scotland team, with a more positive formation but it hasn’t worked. Especially away from home, the priority is to protect our defence. One thing Scotland never do is come from behind. Whenever we chase the game, we are poor and if we go gung ho from the start, we run the risk of this. My guess is that we will see a more defensive set up this evening, trying our luck from set pieces and counter attacks.

The performance from Paul Hartley, who began his career as a more attack-minded player, on Saturday shows that we lack a ball winner in the middle of the park. Pandev and Naumoski were allowed to drop deep and turn with ease time and time again. If we allow Eidur Gudjohnson to do the same tonight, we will be punished.

If Burley continues to play attacking away from home and doesn’t get any results, then he is not the right man for the job. But surely he should be given more than 90 minutes of competitive action before the media jump on his back and call for his head.

We should be uniting behind the team and the manager. It is the English media who castigate their boss at the first opportunity and look at what it has done for them in the past. The media contribute towards the formation of opinion amongst some sections of the support and if they are on the back of the management from the off, their chances of success diminish. England think they are world beaters, we know, or should know, that we are not.

I know almost a week has passed since the last round of SPL fixtures but I have been away and I couldn’t let the first Old Firm match of the season pass by without commenting on it. So apologies to those currently preparing for an international week of football for bringing up old news.

The first thing that struck me in the lead up last week’s encounter at Celtic Park was both managers’ team selections. After giving new signing Glenn Loovens his debut a week earlier against Falkirk, Strachan decided to resort back to a Caldwell/McManus combination in the centre of defence. This proved to be one of Celtic’s downfalls – along with the naturally right sided Mark Wilson at left back – as Daniel Cousin got the better of the two, when he wasn’t fouling them, for most of the afternoon.

Cousin was by far the most surprising inclusion in either line-up as he made his first start of the season. Whether Walter Smith believed he was the right man for the job or whether this high profile match, probably the only one with a wide audience outside of Scotland, was the last opportunity to put him in the shop window. Whatever the reason Cousin now finds himself in the English Premiership with Hull City, despite showing both the best and worst sides to his game during the match by both scoring and receiving a red card.

The biggest surprise of the day was the exclusion of Barry Robson. He began the match on the bench as Strachan decided to go with Paul Hartley sitting and the ever disappointing Scott Brown bursting forward from midfield. The only thing he burst, however, was the last piece of faith the Celtic supporters have remaining in him. He was forgiven last season when it emerged that he had family problems that affected his performances but if he doesn’t start picking up his game soon he will surely be out the door at the next opportunity.

It is easy with hindsight to say that Robson should have started instead but surely others must have thought the same upon seeing the line-ups due to his contribution in wrestling the title away from Rangers last season after signing in January. In fact, going by recent form, I would start Robson ahead of McGeady or Nakamura. He has shown he can not only play in all three positions but also that he is currently the best Celtic have in midfield.

The team selection and defeat will surely have Celtic fans again calling – stupidly in my opinion - for Strachan’s head. After all, he has only won three titles in three attempts and taken the team the furthest it has ever been in the Champions League.

On the day, Walter Smith’s tactics were spot on. He provided extra cover for his full back by playing Davis and Adam on either side of midfield, knowing that this is where Celtic could hurt them most, especially with the error prone Kirk Broadfoot at right back. Also Cousin provided the necessary muscle up front to allow Kenny Miller to run riot. It was inevitable that Kenny Miller was going to get his first goal since his return to Rangers against Celtic. He did the same in a Celtic jersey two years ago.

I wonder if anyone in the Rangers support booed Miller when he scored the third and fifth goals of the match.

I heard one Celtic fan claim his first goal was lucky. I do not know what goal that guy was watching because from what I seen he done brilliantly to catch the ball on the volley, keep it down and send it goal wards. I just hope he takes this form with him to Macedonia and Iceland over the next week.

Overall it was the Pedro Mendes show. He picked up his third bottle of Champaign in as many matches after running the show in midfield and capping in off with the best goal of the match. This has been an incredible signing by Walter Smith and Barry Ferguson will surely have a tough time finding his way back into the side once he recovers from injury.

While there was nothing he could do about his goal, Artur Boruc was at fault for Cousin’s opener and Miller’s second of the match. Questions must surely be asked about Artur Boruc but not necessarily about his ability. Despite being at error for the two goals he has proven time and time again that he is a top quality goalkeeper. I thought that Celtic would have cashed in on him after his immense display at Euro 2008 and the club may be beginning to regret that they didn’t. Yet another gesture to opposition supporters has shown that even after several warnings he cannot behave himself.

I find it sad that supporters can be as verbally abusive as they wish towards players but as soon as a player farts in their direction it is considered potentially causing a riot but this is the reality, especially in a match a heated as the Old Firm.

This is the third or fourth time Boruc has done this, added to recently being banned from his national side for breaking a curfew, and it seems no matter how many warnings, punishments or words in his ear he will continue to be a liability.

We know that from previous seasons too much should not be read into this result, with regards to who will win the league. Both sides have already dropped points, Rangers the previous week away to Aberdeen and Celtic away to Dundee United the week before that, and both will do so at certain points during the campaign. The Old Firm matches are crucial but not so much this early in the season.

Rangers have strengthened their squad significantly, even after selling their most valuable asset and of course they have the added ‘bonus’ of not having any midweek trips to the four corners of Europe.

Although Celtic may currently look weaker and face a tough time in the Champions League which could damage morale, they have a built in never-say-die attitude that not only comes out in certain matches but seems to stretch across entire season also, as was shown last time around.

It promises to be another intriguing season.

just to let you all know that I am going away tomorrow, therefore I will not be writing for the next 12 days or so.

Adim, you can deduct the points off me for these posts if you want.

Cheers

hurtafly

Since I will most likely have plenty more opportunities to vent my anger about how difficult it is to play against either half of the Old Firm when there is a level playing field, never mind having to play against the officials as well, I thought I would take this opportunity to praise the excellent start to the season made by newly-promoted Hamilton, who find themselves top of the league with a 100% record after two matches.

When the fixtures for the SPL were announced, Hamilton, knowing they were likely to be involved in a scrap for survival, must have looked upon the opening month of the season rather favourably. Four or five points from the first four matches against Dundee United, Inverness, Kilmarnock and Hearts must have seemed a real possibility for Billy Reid and his side, which would have relieved some of the pressure that unequivocally manifests when new-boys get off to a slow start.

They have already surpassed these expectations taking six points from six and they can now feel a little more confident about their future in the SPL. Two years ago, the then new-promoted St Mirren got their campaign off to a flyer with maximum points from their first two matches. The Paisley side then went on to pick up four points in their next four matches, which, in the end, helped ensure their survival as it took until the last day of the season to confirm they would be playing top flight football the following year.

Like St Mirren then, Hamilton will still surely find themselves at the wrong end of the table come April and much hard work is needed to avoid dropping back down at the first time of asking. However, a good start to the campaign cannot be underestimated. Had they taken no, or even one, point(s) from their opening fixtures, pressure would slowly have mounted on the team to get points on the board before they were cut adrift, as happened to Gretna last season before their financial difficulties finally caught up with them. After the first fifteen matches Gretna had only managed five points, which they never recovered from.

Reid seems to have the correct mixture of experience and youth, even if it is the extreme ends of both – Chris Swailes, 37; James McCarthy, 17. His side also seem fearless. Many tipped Hamilton to go straight back down but being written off before a ball is kicked is enough motivation in some cases, by fuelling the squad with determination to prove everyone wrong.

A long season lies ahead for everyone at New Douglas Park but if they keep up their exciting attacking football, they will be a welcomed addition to the SPL for years to come.

This follows the drawn out transfer saga involving Auxerre’s central defender Gabriel Tamas and adds to Celtic other recruits of the summer – winger Paddy McCourt and midfielder Marc Crosas. Celtic will surely add one or two more players before August 31st, with a left back being the most likely position.

Rangers could today end their midfield problems, set off by the injury to club captain Barry Ferguson, with the signing of Pedro Mendes from Portsmouth. At the time of writing the 29-year-old is discussing personal terms with the Ibrox after passing his medical. Rangers recently failed to agree personal terms with Watford defender Danny Shittu, now a t Bolton, as the player was expecting close to £20,000-per-week. Pedro Mendes will most likely be on more than this so Rangers must be using the money received from Carlos Cuellar’s move to Aston Villa to make him one of the top earners at the club.

Mendes joins fellow new signings Madjid Bougherra, Kyle Lafferty, Kenny Miller, Andrius Velicka and Aaron Niguez Esclapez at Ibrox. How many more will follow will probably depend on how many players manager Walter Smith is able to get rid of. He is now left with a squad, at least in terms of numbers, to fight both a domestic and European campaign. Now that European football is over for the season, a few will be expected to leave. The problem is there is no interest being shown in any of the likely candidates for the chop. Daniel Cousin, who almost joined Fulham in January for £3.5m, has since shown his true colours and no one is interested in a Jean-Claude Darcheville who can only last for sixty minutes.

Elsewhere in the SPL, most of the transfer activity these clubs are likely to partake in have already happened. Dundee United Aberdeen, Falkirk, St Mirren and Kilmarnock have added most, if not all, of the players they are going to recruit this summer while SPL new boys Hamilton, who have already acquired six new players, will probably look to beef-up their squad a little more, although no clear signing targets have been made public.

Hearts have been busy over the last few weeks signing striker Mike Tullberg and goalkeeper Marian Kello, while obtaining a work permit for Ugandan international David Obua. One or two more players could be signed before the end of the month, with the right back area being a priority.

Motherwell have been frustrated in most of their attempts to make any signings but have added Jim O’Brien, formerly of Celtic, and goalkeeper Gunnar Nielsen from Blackburn on loan.
They recently had a bid rejected for Livingston full back and captain Dave MacKay and according to a Scottish newspaper they are currently tracking Rangers misfit Andy Webster, who is famous for being the first player to invoke a loophole in FIFA rules that allowed him to cancel his contract with Hearts with over a year left run on it. He moved to Wigan, didn’t settle and has since been at Rangers, where he struggled with injury and made few appearances.

Motherwell have a small squad and a very limited budget and seem to be suffering more in the transfer market than any other club in the SPL. The longer they stay in Europe, the more their SPL campaign will suffer, unless they manage to add more before the end of the transfer window.

Another side who have struggled to sign players is Inverness Caley Thistle. They have lost strikers Dennis Wyness, Graham Bayne and Marius Niculae and have so far brought in Andy Barrowman, who scored on his debut last week, after moving from Ross County, where he scored 24 goals last season. They have also added another striker in Adam Rooney from Stoke, full back Lionel Djebi-Zadi and goalkeeper Ryan Esson. To ensure their survival, Inverness will still need to add more to their attack. They recently failed in a bid to take Calum Elliot on-loan from Hearts and have handed a trial to Dutch winger Kiran Bechan.

That leaves Hibernian. They have made a few new signings, including former Chelsea youngster Joe Keenan and striker Steve Pinau on-loan from Genoa, although manager Mixu Paatelainen recently told reporters that up to nine players at Hibs are not good enough to play for the club. He has left it very late to realise this and it will be surprising if he is able to clear out all the players he wants to, and recruit a few more, within the next two weeks.

Eddie Smith, who was at the centre of an incident that helped Celtic gain a 1-0 victory over St Mirren last season, took charge for the same fixture on Sunday at Celtic Park. Again he had a big decision to make and again he was conned by a Celtic player. Celtic were awarded a penalty when Saints defender Will Haining was judged to have pulled back Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink when television pictures showed that it was Dutchman who was doing the holding before he got his shot away and then hit the deck with no contact from the Haining. After making the call, he had no option but to send the St Mirren defender off.

From the view of Eddie Smith, you can maybe see why he gave it, he was behind the players and it could easily have looked to him as though Haining had pulled Hesselink back. So where was the assistant? I am sure they would have also been included in this pay dispute. He surely had a clear view that it was Vennegoor of Hesselink that was holding, not vice versa, and that he went to ground with no contact from Haining.

Levein’s gripe last season was not that the referees were cheats or that they were consistently poor, it was that officials bottle giving big decisions against the Old Firm. After only one round of matches we have already seen it happen this term.

Maybe this is another argument for video evidence. Stop the game for 30 seconds, only for incidents involving dubiety over whether the ball has crossed the line, or whether a penalty should be awarded, to make sure the correct decision is being made. Maybe we can follow the example of tennis and give each manager approximately two chances to question the referee’s decision and check other reliable evidence.

With regards to the fact that Vennegoor of Hesselink conned Smith into awarding Celtic a penalty, when is Gordon Smith going to stick to his word and retrospectively punish cheats? His public comments after Hearts player Saulius Mikoliunas won Lithuania a penalty against Scotland through simulation now seem nothing more than pandering to popular opinion. He said nothing after a clear dive by Kevin Thomson in an Old Firm match last season and has not punished, nor named and shamed one player since. And anyone who watches any football at all will know that it happens at least once in almost every match that takes place.

Punishing cheats would not stamp the practice out completely; however, I believe it would significantly reduce it.

The referees do deserve better pay than they were on. They are under immense pressure to make big calls week in week out and are subject to constant abuse from supporters. However, they need to have more bottle when it comes to big decisions at Ibrox and Celtic Park. One caller on BBC’s Your Call on Saturday night, before the Celtic v St Mirren game, suggested bonus related pay for referees. Perhaps this would aid them make more objective judgements.

After turning down Hearts to remain at Motherwell, albeit with an improved contract, manager Mark McGhee now faces the uphill battle of trying to emulate his team’s achievements of last season. The Fir Park side gained entry into this year’s UEFA Cup with their 3rd place finish but their success of the previous campaign could contribute to their downfall this time.

It was a remarkable turnaround for a team who were involved in a relegation battle the previous season, only ensuring survival on the final day. With an extremely thin squad this time, and pressure building up from expectation, I think Motherwell will struggle this year. They have been one of the least active teams in the transfer market and have lost one of last season’s stars Ross McCormack on a free to Cardiff City.

McGhee made clear his frustrations with regards to recruiting players during the close season. No more so than when the club were unable to bring John Kennedy in from Celtic on-loan, even though they player himself preferred a move to Fir Park over his eventual destination Norwich. Another couple of defenders are surely a priority for the Motherwell boss after the long-term injury to Brian McLean and Simon Lappin’s return to Norwich after his loan spell.

When their European campaign kicks off, the Saturday-Thursday-Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday, fixtures caused by being involved in three different competitions will hit Motherwell hard unless they add more players. If they manage to qualify for the group stage of the UEFA Cup this year, that will guarantee them four more matches and will extend their European endeavour at least to Christmas.

Whether McGhee sticks with his attacking 4-3-3 formation that brought success last year, but left them vulnerable at the back, or whether he reverts to a more stable 4-4-2 or even a more defensive minded 4-5-1 will be interesting to see. Whatever formation he opts for, McGhee has two quality strikers in David Clarkson and Chris Porter. But as they haven’t replaced McCormack and if one of these were to be unavailable for whatever reason, they have very little as back-up.

With their small squad and their unwillingness to splash the cash, which actually shows some prudence - it wasn’t so long ago Motherwell were in administration -, even if Motherwell do follow Rangers’ lead and fall at the first hurdle in Europe they will still struggle to finish in the top six of the SPL.

Prediction: 8th

Rangers

After defending their way to three cup finals and narrowly missing out on the league I really expected Rangers to add a bit of flair to their side this term; which was about all they lacked last season. They have been unlucky with injuries, especially in the wings and manager Walter Smith seems to have blown the majority of his budget on strikers, leaving him with eight on the books, and also leaving him short in other areas. This added to the team crashing out of Europe at the first attempt means there will be very little money to spend.

It will be interesting to see if losing out on the financial windfall the Champions League brings will hinder or aid their title challenge this season. There will be less money to spend, but on the other hand it means the team can concentrate on the SPL and not have to worry about postponing matches against St. Mirren four days before they travel to face a top European side. One option for Rangers would be to sell Carlos Cuellar, a player that could potentially generate a similar amount of money to what they have lost out on after their defeat to FBK Kaunas this week.

This would weaken their central defence but after the capture Madjid Bougherra, the funds raised from selling Cuellar would allow Rangers to add to their midfield with someone like Steve Davis, a player they have attempted to sign since last season’s loan deal ended. They would also benefit from signing a right back and one or two wide men. With injuries to Chris Burke, DaMarcus Beasley and Steven Naismith they have virtually no-one who naturally plays wide. Nacho Novo is about the only fit player who can actually play effectively as a winger.

Rangers were under pressure to win league before they exited the Champions League on Wednesday night and they are under even more pressure to do so now. With many players looking drained this early in the season, added to the poor pre-season form of goalkeeper Allan McGregor, after recovering from long-term injury, the Ibrox side will find it difficult to mount a serious title challenge this year.

Prediction: 2nd

St Mirren

Steady progress has been made by St Mirren under the guidance of manager Gus MacPherson over the last two years. Since gaining promotion, the Paisley club have survived relegation with 11th, and more recently, 10th placed finishes. Although Gretna’s awful time in the SPL, coupled with Kilmarnock’s squad being decimated by injury, probably made last season a little easier than it should have been.

MacPherson has added well to his squad but ambitions of reaching the top six are overly optimistic. Tom Brighton, Steven Robb and Jack Ross are all useful acquisitions but the signing of Dennis Wyness may require justification come the end of season; and I don’t know too much about latest recruit Antonio Guerao Mayoral Tonet. Retaining the services of Franco Miranda will aid the team this year and they should have enough in them to survive once again.

Goals were St Mirren’s biggest problem last season and Craig Dargo could be a big player this time round. After a poor start to his Saints career, problems with injury ruled him out for half of last term but even when he did gain full fitness, he still failed to be as potent as he was in an Inverness shirt.

St Mirren hit some form during the second half of last season and much of this was down to the arrival of Andy Dorman in January; an inspired signing by Gus MacPherson. However, if Dorman continues his form into this season, I would be surprised if he wasn’t snapped up by another club, either before the end of the current transfer window ends, or the following one in January. His contract expires next summer and if he fails to renew it, it would not take much of a bid to take him away from Love Street.

It is a disappointment that St Mirren will not be kicking off their campaign at their new stadium. The completion date has already been put back and a further delay looks on the cards. Moving mid-season could disrupt the side, especially if they get their season off to a sound start. They have had a decent home record over the last year and obviously want to improve but a move to a new home could hinder this.

Survival has been the key word for the Paisley club since their promotion two years ago and many supporters will be expecting this to be the time the club to push on and improve their league position, possibly even move into the top six, but I don’t think this will happen. St Mirren may just get dragged into another relegation battle but they should have enough in their side to pull away to safety once more.

Prediction: 10th

Hibs’ early exit from the now defunct Intertoto Cup a few weeks back was followed by a terrible pre-season campaign. The team failed to score in their first six matches, including the two-legged tie against Swedish outfit Elfsborg. That run consisted of a 2-0 defeat to Second Division Cowdenbeath and a 3-0 defeat to First Division Clyde. The goals finally came when Steven Fletcher scored a double to put Hibs two nil up against Middlesbrough, a match they went on to lose by three goals to two.

I think that this season will be a tough one for Mixu Paatelainen, who has a hard job ahead of him to emulate the entertainment and relative success the team provided and enjoyed under the guidance of Tony Mowbray. Some players Paatelainen has signed, like David van Zanten, John Rankin and Martin Canning, have not improved the squad and some players he inherited are not too much better. Millions of pounds have been brought into the club through the transfers of Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson and Gary O’Conner to name a few, but little has been spent on replacements.

Despite this there is still some quality left in the Hibs squad. Steven Fletcher, who earned his first cap earlier in the year, will score goals if given the service and Dean Shiels has enjoyed regular first team football since Paatelainen’s appointment. He was in great form for the second half of last season, even though the manager may not have quite found his best position yet.

After a shaky start to his Hibs career, defender Chris Hogg has flourished and Kevin McCann and Lewis Stevenson have potential, even if they have not progressed as much as some would have liked. Merouane Zemmama is another who will be an important player for Hibs this season after being kept out of the team for much of last season due to injury.

Following an impressive display as a trialist against Barcelona, Steven Tichot won a deal at Eater Road and could be the answer to the departure of fellow Frenchman Guillaume Beuzelin to Coventry under freedom of contract. Another player who could sign is Fabio Yantorno, the best player by a fair bit in the Gretna team last season until he suffered a knee ligament injury in January that has kept him out since.

Only last week Paatelainen went public with comments regarding his current squad, claiming around nine players are ‘not good enough’ for Hibs and that a clearout was in order. Why did it take him until one week before the season started to notice this? A poor start would put the boss under pressure and with little money to spend. How many players will he be able to bring in of required quality with the little money that is being made available to him?

Prediction: 7th

 

 

Inverness Caley Thistle

Team spirit and hard work has aided Caley’s rise, more than anything else, since their inception into the Scottish Football League in 1994. The Highlanders have never been ones to splash too much cash or break a tight wage structure.

The exception to this of course is Marius Niculae. The Romanian international, who arrived last summer and went on to be the clubs top scorer last season with ten, played for his country during Euro 2008 and Inverness have subsequently cashed in on him, receiving around £400k for his move to Dinamo Bucharest.

Niculae will be sorely missed this season, and with the departures of Graeme Bayne to Dunfermline, and Denis Wyness to St. Mirren, the club have a striker crisis on its hands. This leaves only Rory McAllister and Andrew Barrowman to choose from. Barrowman is stepping up two divisions, after moving from Ross County, and Rory McAllister has not done much to inspire confidence.

What replacements manager Craig Brewster brings in could be the difference to whether Inverness will be in the SPL next season or not. Adam Rooney and Calum Elliot have been linked with loan moves to the Caledonian Stadium; however, the speculation regarding the two have gone on for a while now and I am not sure whether joining Caley would be a good move for Elliot in this stage of his career.

Midfielders Don Cowie and Ian Black are decent players who can turn it on occasions but this will not be enough for the Highlanders to be considered a force to be reckoned with.  They are too week in too many other areas in the tam - defence and in goal, as well as up front - to finish any higher than tenth place.

Another factor in the outcome in their season will be how Hamilton cope with promotion. Even if Inverness do not go down this time, I believe it will happen at some point in the next few seasons. Craig Brewster has not had the best of times since he returned for his second spell as boss and I think he will be another that will find himself under pressure by the end of the year.

Prediction: 12th

 

 

Kilmarnock

Another club that could have a problem scoring goals this season is Kilmarnock. Forwards Gary Wales, Paul Dalglish and Paul Di Giacomo have all left the club and new signing Allan Russell has been ruled out by injury for around six weeks leaving just fellow new recruit Connor Sammon and David Fernandez, who has struggled both with injury and hitting form over the last season, as options in attack. The team also recently lost out on Steve Lovell, who has agreed to join Falkirk instead.

The Ayrshire club had an awful time with injuries last season, which led them to their worst league finish since Jim Jefferies became manager in 2002. At one point during the season the squad was decimated, leaving Jefferies with only twelve fit first team players for one match. Due to Gretna being in league last season Kilmarnock were never in trouble of being relegated and this gave the Killie boss the chance to give some of his younger players some valuable first team experience. Craig Bryson, Ryan O’Leary and Iain Flannigan should all be better players after their extended runs in the first team due to this injury crisis and there will be more competition for places as a result.

Retaining the services of Mehdi Taouil will aid Kilmarnock as they aim to secure a better finish than last season’s 11th, although probably not too much better. The Moroccan adds some much needed flair to the Killie side and the industrious Gavin Skelton, who was one of Gretna’s top performers last season, will also add to the squad.

One area where they are quite strong is at the back. Simon Ford and Frazer Wright may not be the most skilful players but they are solid centre halves. Ryan O’Leary looks a prospect and they have the experience of Martyn Corrigan and Grant Murray to add to this. Left back and captain Gary Hay, another who struggled with injury last term, is also in the latter stages of his career and is a key part of the Kilmarnock side.

If Kilmarnock were to suffer only half the injuries they were subject to last year, they should be stronger, although missing out on Steve Lovell is a real blow. As a result they will still struggle for goals and this will probably mean that they again fail to make the top six this season.

Prediction: 9th