Scottish Football Review - August 2010

One of the problems with the transfer window is that it remains open even after the first balls have been kicked in anger in the SPL.

So two games into the season we have fresh speculation - mainly surrounding the ins and outs at Rangers and Celtic - on an almost daily basis.

It's difficult to get a real handle on the early league skirmishes when we still don't know the exact make-up of a number of squads.

Despite this the Old Firm - along with an apparently rejuvenated Aberdeen - have taken maximum points from the opening games. I'm finding it hard to predict much about the league this season. But that Celtic and Rangers will finish in the top two is boringly beyond doubt.

We're All Going On Our Summer Holidays

I mentioned in July's round-up that the European draws had been reasonably kind to Scottish clubs. Sadly things soon turned sour.

In the Champion's League Celtic lost 3-0 to Portuguese debutants SK Braga in the first leg and Hibs managed to lose their Europa League opener by the same score against Mirabor. Neither side could recover from those first leg humpings.

We have to get this in the context of the opposition. That they lost to sides who won't bother the latter stages of either tournament is worrying and indicative of Scotland's European struggles of late.

We can't rely on the "we're not ready," "we're rebuilding" line of excuses. We have to address the problems and start clawing back some pride.

Celtic at least enjoyed the safety net of the Europa League where they head into the away leg against Utrecht with a two goal cushion. They're joined by Motherwell who have an away goal to their names as they chase a one goal deficit against Odense and Dundee United whose form and 1-0 home defeat would look to rule out any hope of progressing against AEK Athens.

So we should have one team in the Europa League group stage and we could have two teams. Not great but at we're there.

And the money that qualification would generate for a team of Motherwell's financial standing would be quite mind blowing.

National Interest

It took only three minutes for much of the optimism that has built up in Craig Levein's time as Scotland manager to seep away into a Swedish sewer.

By the end of Scotland's 3-0 defeat I was really feeling only gratitude that Sweden had chosen not to really humiliate us. It was that bad.

As he looks to next months qualifying matches Levein has fallen back on 40 year old David Weir and fellow veteran Paul Hartley.

Their inclusion in the squad tells us everything we need to know about the paucity of Scotland's resources. And if the Swedish debacle taught us anything it was that many of the players who Levein might have hope would make breakthrough this season are simply not good enough.

Euro 2012 has never looked so far away.

New Faces

Yes, Rangers or Celtic will win the SPL. And it will no doubt be players from those two sides who make the biggest headlines and garner most of the plaudits in the month ahead.

I'm excited by Rangers loan signing Vladimir Weiss. Pace like his goes far in Scotland and he could be on the brink of a big, big season.

But the most influential signing could be Aberdeen's capture of Paul Hartley. The legs may be ageing but his impact on younger teammates might just galvanise the Dons into a run for third place this season.

Watch this space.

Tom Hall covers Scottish football on the Scottish Football Blog.