So we will have lift-off on our bid for ten in a row come August 2nd with a home tie with Hamilton Accies.
That’s right, a home time for the Champions on the opening day of the season in what is usually known as flag day.
How strange.
Stranger still on the opening weekend of the season with Celtic playing at home – so as to unveil the flag as champions as has always been the tradition – Rangers are away.
That’s right Rangers will be playing away on a weekend when Celtic are playing at home.
How bizarre.
Not only that but they’ve been given the near-impossible tie of playing Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
That’s right the mighty Aberdeen who operate on a fraction of Rangers budget and finished 22 points behind, scored 24 goals less and conceded 17 goals more than the Ibrox side last season.
And not only that but in an empty stadium too.
I mean what chance do Rangers have in this title race with an opening game lack that?
And not only that but the first Old Firm game has been scheduled as the final of the opening eleven fixtures in mid-October.
There’s no guarantees stadiums will be open then never mind at full capacity but it stands the best chance of seeing a crowd of any size being permitted entrance and it means the Celtic fans and TV companies can’t argue that common sense has prevailed.
Rangers fans can though.
You see playing at an empty Pittodrie is no advantage at all but playing at an empty Celtic Park apparently could have been.
That’s the Rangers fans logic for you.
After all, they are the most successful team in world football despite only having only ever won one European trophy in a now-defunct competition.
They were also going to turn around 13 point deficit last season with nine games to go despite having only won four of their previous nine league games and only collecting 14 from 27 available points when the season was prematurely ended.
Oh, and they also finally cut all ties with Sports Direct and were going to unveil a world-renowned brand as their new kit manufacturer.
In the end, they went with some mob called Castore – no, me neither – who will be selling their jerseys in Sports Direct stores.
Steven Gerrard – who so far has led them to five soon to be six cup eliminations, two distant second-placed finishes and indeed who they even wanted sacked last February – has also become a talented manager of great promise once again over the past four months despite no actual football having being played up here in that time.
It’s an interesting early insight into the mindset of the Rangers football club and their support for this upcoming season.
That being finger pointing, excuses, denial, contradictions and pure fantasy all the while churning out their usual nonsense vis-a-vis fair play, dignity, accountability etc, etc, etc.
Expect it to get more desperate and banal as the season progresses as the terrifying prospect of Celtic winning ten consecutive league championships becomes a reality all the while clinging onto talk of tainted titles and them not actually acknowledging their existence anyway.
Strange then that the prospect of something which they don’t believe to be legitimate seems to terrify them so much.
As for the fixture list, we’ll have to play six league fixtures between the 2nd and 29th of August and there’s still no word on when last seasons Scottish Cup will – if ever – be concluded or when next seasons League Cup will start.
Some talk today seems to suggest October as the starting month for the League Cup though that’s not been confirmed yet.
In regards to Europe, the first qualifying round of the Champions League will be played over one leg on the 18th of August as will the subsequent two qualifying rounds, should we make them, on the 25/08 and the 15/09 respectively.
The competition will then return to a home and away leg basis for the play-offs in late September.
Whether the first three qualifying rounds one-off games will be played home or away will literally be the luck of the draw and when that draw is…………………..sometime in August is as specific as it gets at this stage.
For now, at least we know when next season is starting, league wise anyway.
That in itself is something.
And just like the last four months, it’s safe to say that next season will be like none other with the exception of the final placings hopefully.
Here’s how we opened last season’s campaign.
Would be nice to repeat this in 26 days time.
....Always A Tim! 