For all this has been a week of momentous change at both Rangers and Hearts, the cleverest of the clever money has still got to be on Celtic to hold onto their position as champions next season.
They’ve got fortunes in the bank, a number of sellable assets, an established infrastructure, the prospect of further Champions League riches should they negotiate a play-off against unseeded opposition. Everything remains firmly in their favour.
What Aberdeen did in seeing them off with a real rope-a-dope performance in the Scottish Cup final, though, was show there are chinks in the armour.
And that should give incoming Ibrox chairman Andrew Cavenagh and his team – along with Tony Bloom and co at Hearts, for that matter – hope of achieving more than just being stuck in their slipstream despite finding themselves facing full-scale rebuilds rather than just a straightforward game of catch-up.
Cavenagh’s US-based consortium will, in time, sort Rangers out following the general chaos of the last decade or so under boards that meant well, but proved to be out of their depth. The backing and involvement of the San Francisco 49ers should see to that.
They improved their fortunes considerably eight years ago when bringing in New-York based consultancy firm Sportsology to go through their structures, player development models and medical and sports science departments following consecutive seasons rock-bottom of the NFL’s NFC West.
Rangers should prosper on and off the field following their takeover by US investors
Andrew Cavenagh will be the new Rangers chairman following the US takeover
Brighton owner Tony Bloom is set to acquire a 29 per cent stake in Hearts
Sportsology have also been in to look under the bonnet at Rangers and, with sporting director Kevin Thelwell starting his new job tomorrow and the appointment of a head coach imminent, their recommendations will soon be actioned. With 49ers Enterprises having already cut their teeth in soccer, getting Leeds United back into the English Premier League for next term, a proper game plan should be forthcoming pretty quickly.
Across at Tynecastle, the rubberstamping of Bloom’s near-£10million investment is a fascinating development too. Although aiming for an actual title win any time soon feels unrealistic, the Brighton owner’s determination to be a ‘disrupter’ on the Scottish scene is clear and unambiguous.
His Jamestown Analytics firm have had, shall we say, a quiet start at Hearts, but the appointment of Derek McInnes as manager suggests a hardening of attitudes and a heightening of ambition.
The club has been guilty of some ridiculous decision-making in recent times – such as handing Steven Naismith a new deal as boss just months before bulleting him and then recruiting Neil Critchley as his successor without even meeting him face-to-face – but Bloom putting a representative on the board after buying up 29 per cent of the place should focus muddled minds a little more.
As far as football goes, his body of work is impressive. Brighton punch above their weight in the most expensive competition of all. Meanwhile, his Belgian interest Union Saint-Gilloise, which he took over in 2018 when they were in the second division, have just won their first championship in 90 years with a budget far less than that of the likes of Club Brugge.
Rangers and Hearts are about to start working under established models. Quite how long it takes for them to get up to full speed remains to be seen, but they will almost certainly be stronger propositions under their new arrangements.
And if winning silverware next season proves just a step too far given the scale of change required in both camps, the very least they need to do is exert far greater pressure on a Celtic set-up that still doesn’t entirely convince in spite of their latest runaway success in the Premiership.
They need to ask proper questions of Parkhead manager Brendan Rodgers and those behind him in the powerbase – because, right now, uncertainties do exist over quite how robust and resilient their recruitment process, for example, is.
Hearts have appointed Derek McInnes as their new manager following Neil Critchley’s sacking
Bloom has a stake in Union Saint-Gilloise, who have just won their first Belgian title in 90 years
Brendan Rodgers’ recruitment is under scrutiny despite a successful season
Certainly, by common consensus, the £40million or so spent on transfer fees alone over the last year – on Arne Engels, Adam Idah, Jota, Auston Trusty, Paulo Bernardo and Luke McCowan – hasn’t quite had the impact expected.
The go-to men in Rodgers squad, for all that spending, remain Callum McGregor, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Daizen Maeda and Alistair Johnston.
Rodgers has been clear more will be invested in talent again this summer. As it should be. Yet, is there any absolute clarity on how that whole part of Celtic works?
Paul Tisdale was brought in with the title of Head of Football Operations last October, but it is hard to put meat on the bones when considering the breadth of his remit. He’s never been heard from. What we do know is that Rodgers was clear that anyone working that role, whatever it is, ‘has to be compatible with my personality’.
From the information available, it seems it is still CEO Michael Nicholson entrusted with dealing with contract negotiations and deal-making. This is not to say Celtic isn’t working behind the scenes. The process just seems a little more unclear.
What it does seem safe to say, though, is that Rodgers is front and centre of it and the players coming through the door arrive with his blessing. It does seem fair to judge him on the individual signings and the overall strategy.
Look, the season just gone was a success. A league and League Cup double is more than acceptable in any campaign. Celtic punching their weight in Europe was massive, though, and the display in Munich in going out to Bayern in the play-offs for the last-16 thanks to a last-gasp deflection suggests further progress can be made.
Yet, the latter half of the season was less impressive. Two defeats to Rangers rang alarm bells. Losses to Hibs and St Johnstone raised red flags too. And the cup final display against Aberdeen was abject. Those big signings brought in on Rodgers’ watch didn’t turn up. The team looked tired and in need of freshening.
Kieran Tierney will return to Celtic on a free transfer from Arsenal
Kieran Tierney has already been secured on a free transfer for next season and, if he stays fit, he should rip it up. Yet, staying fit hasn’t always come easy for him.
When Rodgers returned to Celtic for a second spell, everything was about signing young players with international experience and future trade-on value. Tierney, to be fair, is 28 next week – and that’s hardly old – but he is highly unlikely to be going anywhere else for a fee.
His signing hints at a movement in strategy. The fact Rodgers is entering the final year of his contract – with no sign of a new deal on the horizon – adds that extra touch of uncertainty too.
Celtic are the best team in the country by a distance. That’s clear. They’re in a great position to assert their dominance.
However, the overall field of play is changing for the better. Rangers are bound to improve under proper, professional leadership. Hearts have a guy with the Midas Touch on board. Aberdeen will bank millions from Europe and reinvest heavily.
The future direction of Hibs with Black Knight and Bill Foley in the mix – and a guy in the manager’s chair in David Gray who becomes more impressive by the month – will be worth watching too.
All of a sudden, the endless talk of domestic tedium and Celtic being flat-track bullies doesn’t seem so loud. Rodgers and his board were put under the microscope at Hampden and that will continue as they react and recruit over summer.
The upcoming campaign is most certainly full of interest and sub-plots and change. That’s exactly what the game here needs and it can’t come around quickly enough.
Rachel Corsie using competitive games as a farewell tour is not a good look for the Scotland women’s team
How lovely for Rachel Corsie to be able to use Scotland’s Nations League double-header with Austria and the Netherlands as a personal farewell tour in the wake of her decision to retire.
How silly it makes the women’s national team look, though, and what questions it raises of head coach Melissa Andreatta before she’s even got her feet under the table at the SFA.
If Scotland’s matches were a couple of end-of-season friendlies, fine. Corsie has been a steady presence in the women’s game. It’s a nice gesture to let her mark the conclusion of her career in the wake of persistent knee problems with a final run-out for a couple of minutes in dark blue. These are competitive matches, though. Friday night’s loss to Austria brought Nations League relegation. No one likes to be a party pooper, but it beggars belief that Corsie came on at half-time and played a full 45 minutes.
Andreatta has a big job on her hands. Scotland’s women are serial failures and have underperformed spectacularly in recent years. There are a number of new players coming through and Andreatta needs to get to work on trying to fit them into a team capable of showing it can win important games.
Sure, she’s only just arrived in the job and the Nations League campaign was pretty much a fait accompli, but agreeing to let a player who missed pretty much the whole season use two competitive fixtures as a grand goodbye – when a press conference would have been sufficient – doesn’t exactly set down a good marker. Indeed, it raises doubts over just how seriously the women’s national side regards itself.
Clearly, not as highly as Corsie regards herself. So much for all that stuff about no individual being bigger than the team. It sure doesn’t look like that’s the mantra here.
Rachel Corsie made her final outing at Hampden in Scotland’s Nations League loss to Austria
Oli Burke’s agents should have a statue built in their honour
There are calls for statues to be built in honour of people inside football all the time. Few can be more deserving, though, than those who have guided the club career of Oli Burke.
The big striker, owner of 13 Scotland caps from what now feels like a different age, came to the end his contract at Werder Bremen at the end of the season and immediately completed a transfer to another Bundesliga outfit in Union Berlin. No messing about.
Union Berlin will be the 11th club of a career that started at Nottingham Forest just over 11 years ago and has involved a £13million move to RB Leipzig, a £15million switch to West Brom and periods at Celtic, Alaves, Bremen, Sheffield United, Birmingham City, Millwall, and Bradford.
Union Berlin striker Oli Burke has not played for Scotland since 2020
What a journey. And what a few quid he must have made along the way.
Normally, a 28-year-old centre-forward playing in the German top-flight would be at the centre of a fevered campaign to get him into the Scotland squad, particularly when strikers are thin on the ground.
Yet, Burke never rates a mention. His chance has clearly come and gone. All that pace and power has never quite been able, in this parish at least, to draw attention away from other limitations in his game.
Yet, here he is. Ready to go again in the Bundesliga. And surely waiting for delivery of the marble busts to go up in the mansion in honour of the agents who still have him playing top-league football to the amazement of many.
