With the Scottish football season into its stride there is lively debate to be had as to whether the Premiership or the Championship will provide the more competitive action in the months ahead.
In my view Celtic will tie the Premiership title up very early this season.
They have a budget vastly bigger than their rivals and in manager Brendan Rodgers a boss with experience of managing Liverpool, one of the best clubs, in one of the best leagues in the world.
The Glasgow side could have the top title gift-wrapped in record quick time.
The Championship though, is already according to some, shaping up to be a more exciting league than the Premiership this season.
Hibernian have set a fire alight at Easter Road with huge crowds turning up, buoyed by last season’s Scottish cup win and with the arrival of a big time manager in the articulate Neil Lennon.
Raith Rovers and Queen of the South are also out of the blocks quickly while Dundee United have assembled a squad which, once knitted together, looks capable of beating any team in the league on its day.
The great old football towns of Dunfermline, Falkirk, Greenock, Paisley and Ayr will all play their part in a season which seems capable of producing bigger crowds than much of the league above and potentially a tighter title race.
My preference is for a bigger top division of around 16 clubs, but in the absence of that, two strong leagues with a nucleus of highly competitive clubs is a great advert for bringing crowds back to Scottish grounds.
* Modern football is just an updated equivalent of ancient Rome’s bread and circuses, but while all fans want to see their teams entertain and win, some supporters have become like the crowd at the coliseum in wanting to throw players to the lions.
A misplaced pass or poorly executed shot is regarded as being worthy of the thumbs down from some terracing emperors as they bay for blood.
Players who admittedly may sometimes not be the finest exponents of the beautiful game, but are nevertheless human beings and often just youngsters at that, are also casually and brutally castigated in vicious chat on social media platforms, in a way which if applied to a bricklayer, plumber or van driver would probably result in a short trip to A&E for the angry poster.
Some fans in supporting their team now exhibit the kind of rage which would be more suited to watching cage fighting.
Players are hounded within seconds of a game starting and are mercilessly pilloried for every wayward pass or touch of the ball.
That is not supporting the team.
Paying money at the supermarket for the shopping doesn’t confer the right to abuse the staff if the bananas are soft.
Ninety minutes on a Saturday was always a way to let off steam, but now for some fans it exists solely to release a torrent of invective and spleen on professional footballers trying to the best of their ability to perform their given tasks.
That is well out of order.
