AFTER all the heat and noise of speculation which followed Rangers' spectacular crash into administration and the machinations of the bidding process for the carcass of the beast, it is now becoming difficult to get one's "game head" on in anticipation of the start of season 2012-13.
This "so-what" feeling is exacebrated by a couple of things - the way football, which once upon a time began with a big bang: everyone kicking-off on the same day for the first group games in the old League Cup, for instance - now stumbles into action with a series of inoffensive pre-season "challenge" games or high-profile, made for TV overseas friendlies. The "challenge" with the "challenge" games, is to get excited about them.
The second stumbling block to getting excited this season is the continued wall-to-wall Olympics coverage on TV.
When you are seeing genuine world-class athletes competing, even if you have barely a clue about what is happening in white-water canoeing, clay pigeon shooting or judo, it throws the whole, absurd, over-hyped, under-talented world of Scottish fitba into sharp relief, and you are forced to ask: Just why do we bother with this shite?
Celtic began their quest for Champions League glory on Wednesday night with a 2-1 win over some Finnish side we've never heard of before and perhaps never will again.
OK, Celtic are still in pre-season mode domestically; they were on a hiding to nothing in this game. Win, which they did: "so what?" Lose: "You're shite". Talk about a no-win situation.
I expected Celtic to be less-than-uplifting, to be under-cooked; but, I still expected them to win, which they did.
Scottish football is now decidedly "Second Division" in European terms. We are ranked 26th in Europe; there are 53 nations in UEFA membership, and, one or two of these are, I would suggest, about the level of the Caledonian Amateur League.
So, we are, at best, struggling in the relegation zone of the Second Division of European Leagues, while the Finnish League is probably even deeper in the relegation zone than we are, or, more likely, in the top half of the Third Division. Our sides should win, but it will always be tight.
We can do, I would suggest, one of two things. We either adapt our season to mirror the reality of our current situation; perhaps adopting the Scandinavian solution of splitting our season so our teams are match-hardened when the European qualifiers come along - or, we immediately give ourselves the kick up the backside we need and get back to where we like to think we should be - in the top flight of European Leagues.
Option one is the more-realistic one and, I feel, has much to recommend it. We bring in a winter break, perhaps playing March to December. There could be a bonus from this, with the SPL games on TV at a time (June and July) when there is no EPL competition.
I would also like to see the SPL and SFL, like the English Rugby Premiership, bringing in a rule whereby 70 to 75 per cent of any squad had to be Scotland-qualified. We keep hearing EU Law will not allow this, but, I ask, if English Rugby can get away with imposing an England-qualified rule, why cannot the SPL at least have a Scotland-qualified rule?
The victorious 18-man Celtic squad, which, I need not remind you merely has established a first leg lead - the tie is still to be won in Finland - contained a mere four "Scotland-qualified" players: Charlie Mulgrew, James Forrest, Scott Brown and Kris Commons. At least, two of them came through the ranks at Celtic Park, even if Mulgrew had to leave to flourish, before returning.
When you see the way British Olympians in other disciplines have worked to win their medals. When you hear of the ultra-professional way our elite Olympians are coached, trained, have access to psychological and physiological experts, to sports scientists, video analysts, specialist coaches, you can only wonder at the way Scotland's richest teams and richest sports still guddle through as it always has done.
"But it's aye been done this way" is the most-common and biggest brake on Scotland and particularly Scottish football's quest for better times and more-success.
If having the Olympics in the UK this year blows away some of these age-old drawbacks within Scottish football, it will be worth while.
Will it happen? No, I cannot see it either; we will continue to muddle along at the back, the way we have done for years of non-success.
We will continue to get extremely over-heated through games of (on-line) whataboutery between fans of rubbish teams, playing rubbish football, in a rubbish league. Nothing will change, because, while there was a wide-spread desire for Rangers to be given a good kicking, there wasn't the same desire for the bad practices, bad decisions and old boys network which has held us back for so long to be totally got rid off.
The Olympics has had many Britons asking: "What if?" "Why not?" and "Yes we can". Sadly, in Scotland, it is still: "no-way, never and there's nothing wrong".
Inspiring? Maybe, but not yet in Scotland and Scottish football.
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