THE Open is out of the way - and I defy anyone not to rejoice at big Darren Clarke's success, at long last; so now we can clear the decks for the start of the football season.
Of course, Dundee United are already in European action and can I, at this point, get rid of an issue raised by friend of this blog Sausage Fingers - perhaps the only Arab in the USA who doesn't have his own personal FBI agent looking after him. Following my last post, SF asked me for my views on whether or not to support every Scottish club playing in Europe, even my club's deadliest rivals.
I tend towards the pragmatic Scottish view - you support EVERY Scottish club playing in Europe, regardless; then, if and when THEY come a cropper, you indulge in high-intensity and non-stop piss-taking - simples.
With the rise of the national co-efficient, we are now all in Europe together and we have to be hopeful of long campaigns for every Scottish team, even those we cannot otherwise stand.
I WAS at Rugby Park on Saturday to run my eye over Kenny Shiels's new-look Killie. On walking away from Rugby Park I came up alongside two long-time Killie fans of my acquaintance and asked them what they thought.
"I'm worried", said one.
"It's all going too-well - unbeaten in three games in Ireland, then we come back and play some good stuff this afternoon - I have bother handling promising pre-seasons, it builds an expectation we seldom live up to".
Killie will certainly, this season, try to play something like an old-fashioned Scottish passing game, there were few if any long balls on Saturday and the players seemed comfortable in possession. The same might be said of the St Mirren team I saw out-play then lose to Ayr United the previous Saturday.
Of course, strange things happen in the heat of real battle, rather than the phoney war of pre-season, but, if these standards of short balls, along the carpet, can be maintained, we might just see a half-decent season.
I DON'T know who is driving the story, the player, his agent or "Mad Vlad", but, just as Andy Webster broke the mould to get out of Hearts - and let's be honest, that didn't exactly go to plan in the longer run - maybe Lee Wallace staying at Tynecastle through the final year of his contract, will be the first (or second) crack in football's infatuation with a transfer market.
I don't know all the ins and outs, but in the North American professional sports market, the place which is the true home of the millionaire sportsman, basketball and (American) footballers in the final year of a contract have a greater say in their future than their counterparts in European football.
They also have agents who are perhaps sharper than their European counterparts and better-able to secure lucrative deals for their clients.
Better perhaps for Wallace to run down his Hearts contract, have his agent play hard-ball with Vlad from January and end up with he (Wallace) getting a better wage deal with a new club as a Bosman than through a final year transfer. With no fee to pay, his new club can pey him a better salary.
I see such deals becoming more-prevalant, as the players finally waken-up to the fact that these days, they hold the power - not their clubs.
All it takes is hard-headedness. Look at dear Bobo Balde, who took the money then sauntered away from Celtic.
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