I live in the Washington DC area in the US and I saw Celtic play DC United on the television this past weekend.  They looked VERY disorganized with very little passing.  Petrov got subbed for with about 10 minutes left and just walked off the pitch! He did not even go to the bench, but straight to the locker room.  Perhaps they will pull it together, but they don't look like a SPL contender right now!

Quite often one of the Old Firm makes a shaky start to the season.

I put it down to the number of foreign players they sign during the close season and the consequent lack of cohesion in the team until the players get to know one another, after which their obvious quality shows.

This season I would expect Rangers, rather than Celtic to struggle initially due to the number of signings they've made and their new manager finding his feet. Unfortunately, I don't think we play them until well into the season by which time they'd be starting to pull in the same direction.

Pure theory of course.

Very encouraging to read your observations about Celtic though. I think we meet them quite early in the season, so lets hope they're there for the taking!

TBH I think Hearts have the strongest team at the minute

Celtic look lightweight at the back with Balde out injured an the mighty Gary Caldwell as their only defensive signing :017:

Midfield is without Keane and soon to be missing Petrov

Upfront they have lost 20+ goals a season, Hartson and replaced him with Riordan and Miller...

Rangers were kept in have their games last season because of the excellent Watteurus (Spelling) and have replaced him with an unknown from France

Ricksen is in the priory

Ferguson is injured

Lovenkrands is away

there is more but I just can't think of them...

If Boyd can continue the way he ended last season, Rangers wont have problems scoring goals - hope Celtic do start badly as we play them early  :004:

We should have beaten an off form Rangers side early last season, if Celtic are going to start badly this year let's hope we can take advantage.

Harry, slightly of topic. One of Caldwells mates works with me and he has told me a song they sing to Garry when there out on the town. It goes:

Garry Caldwell

f**ks dead dogs

f**ks dead dogs

f**ks dead dogs

Gary Caldwell

f**ks dead dogs

He loves dog sp*nk

Apparantley the guy is also a closet hun so some good chants could come out of this.

Garry And his brother Steven used to frequent the pub I used to work in, in Stirling and I can confirm they are both to55ers!

harry, i disagree that hearts are looking the strongest - they are close to losing webster and skacel-  two very important players for them!  hopefully they can overcome this but so far they havent made any signings, despite lots of speculation.

good to hear that the tics are looking pish,  think riordan will improve this season with better service.  though with keane and petrov off their midfield need shaping up - hopefully this evander sno will turn out to be rubbish.

lets just cross our fingers that they dont manage to get graveson!

the huns have made close to a million signings already so  le guen will  have his work cut out to gel the team - hopefully we can take an early win before they find form.

Much as I'd love Dsmac to be right (and Rangers to be shyte also), that's what pre-season is for. Last year the tims lost 5-0 to a poor Artmedia side but still were too good for the others in the SPl. Don't forget the SPL is gash anyway.

I have a feeling it might be Rangers this year but I don't give a toss as long as ICT stay up.

Mantis's last sentence there sums it up for me :003:, not the part about rangers i mean :016:.