Winning Ways

The football season this year is shaping up to be rather more interesting than I had expected. I had expected it to basically be another procession - with Celtic having the best squad by far, the best manager by some distance, and the most money by miles, I'd expected them to more or less sweep everyone before them. And if there were signs of a meaningful challenge, I'd expected them to invest heavily to ensure it didn't happen.

But it hasn't been the case. Firstly, Celtic failed to qualify for the Champions' League group stages (which I'd expected - with the recent rules changes I don't expect a Scottish club to get there for a very long time). Then they lost their best player right at the end of the transfer window, with no real opportunity to get a replacement. (And, yes, they got a huge amount of money for that player, and yes, they had already brought in someone in the same position. So, business-wise it was rather spectacular; but in terms of the play on the field, it doesn't seem to be going so well.)
The upshot of that is that Celtic have had a poor start to the season. As, indeed, have Aberdeen and Rangers. This leaves Hearts as league leaders with some cushion, and indeed sees Livingston flying high despite having just been promoted.

Now, it's worth noting that we are only five games in, and I fully expect things to shake out quite quickly - I'm still expecting Celtic to get their collective act together, go on a long run, and win the league; and I'm still expecting the top six to be made up of some combination of Celtic, Hearts, Rangers, Hibs, Aberdeen, and one other (probably Kilmarnock). That order, incidentally, isn't entirely coincidental, but is also not quite a prediction!

But I can see three key points of interest in the next 33 games...

• Will Rangers and Celtic both end the season with the same managers as they began them? And, if so, will they start next season the same way? (Previously, I would have thought the only real prospect of Celtic making a change was if BR got an offer he couldn't refuse. I'm increasingly thinking that threshold might be dropping.)
  
• What will the gap between first and second be?
  
• Will Rangers manage a win over Celtic this season? (Or, in the case of a cup match, will they manage a win in the regulation 90 minutes?)

I still think we'll end the season with painfully little change - I think the pundits were basically unanimous in predicting Celtic for the title at the start of the year, and I think they were right to do so. But I do think that a change in manager for Celtic, or a final winning margin in the single figures, will make next season one to watch. And if Rangers do manage their first win in years, then that will be doubly the case.