PRO PUNTER Dino Vita (@VitaDino) delivers his verdict on the 1-12 ahead of the new Scottish Premiership season for the 2020/21 campaign.
WLB Season Preview 2020/21 | Scottish Premiership: Team Verdicts
The long-awaited return of professional football for Scotland kicks off once again with the 2020/21 Premiership season on the 1st of August 2020.
This season sees Celtic aim for a historic, record-breaking 10th title in a row with Rangers having to do all they can in order to stop Celtic dominating a decade of league football.
1st) Celtic
The current 9-in-a-row champions will be looking to continue their dominance by adding an unbelievable 10th league title in 10 years to their trophy cabinet, which would give them the bragging rights over rivals Rangers as they would be the first team in Scottish football history to achieve this feat.
Celtic will want to ensure they keep a hold of top goal scorer and player of the year winner Odsonne Edouard who has received interest from clubs in England and across Europe.
2nd) Rangers
This season is arguably Rangers manager Steven Gerrard’s biggest along with one of the biggest seasons in the club’s history as they look to stop Celtic's 10 in a row dominance by pipping them to the league title.
Rangers have shown that they are capable of doing this due to last season’s Old Firm performances which saw them beat Celtic away for the first time in 9 years, however, Rangers lacked what Celtic had and that was consistency.
3rd) Aberdeen
Aberdeen will also be keen to keep a hold of midfielder Lewis Ferguson who won the SFWA young player of the year award last season, leading to interest from rivals Rangers.
The Dons will be looking to secure third place, they have strengthened with the signing of Celtic left-back Johnny Hayes, who returns after three years away from the club.
4th) Hibernian
The only team from the capital playing in the Premiership this season after Hearts relegation, Hibs will be looking to have a much better season after coming seventh in the last campaign.
Hibs have signed prolific striker Kevin Nisbet from Dunfermline in order to deal with the lack of depth upfront.
5th) Motherwell
Following an extremely successful campaign last season which saw The Well come 3rd and secure a European spot, Motherwell will be looking to have similar levels of success.
Motherwell have managed to convince manager Stephen Robinson to remain at the club despite heavy interest from Northern Ireland which will be crucial in keeping Motherwell as one of the top clubs in the Premiership.
6th) Livingston
Following promotion to the Premiership in 2018, Livingston has surprised many by managing to not just survive, but thrive in the top league by finishing fifth last season and only being six points behind a European spot.
Livingston can credit this top 6 finish to their terrific home record. They’ll be hoping to hold onto striker Lyndon Dkyes amid interest from Rangers and a number of teams down south.
7th Dundee United
Easily the best team in the Championship last season and deserved to go up, Dundee United will be looking to finish around mid-table this season under new manager Micky Mellon.
The former Tranmere Rovers boss was appointed after the departure of Robbie Neilson who left the club for recently relegated Hearts. Star striker Lawrence Shankland is still on the books but may be snapped up soon.
8th) Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock will be attempting to improve and finish within the top 6 after an unsuccessful campaign last season saw them finish in eighth.
Alex Dyer is the current manager and took over from Angelo Alessio who was sacked in December 2019 after a poor run of form. A few have left the club including Scotland International Stephen O’Donnell so a big rebuild job ahead for Dyer.
9th) St Johnstone
The Perth side are going into the season under new management for the first time in seven years after Northern Irishman Tommy Wright left his role in May 2020.
St Johnstone has appointed Callum Davidson as their new manager who was previously the assistant manager at Millwall and a former player at the club he is now managing.
10th) Ross County
The only Highland team in the Premiership for the second season running, Ross County will once again just be aiming to stay above the drop which is what they just managed to do last season, finishing six points above relegation in 10th.
A big rebuilding job has started at County with six new signings so far.
11th) St Mirren
Along with Hamilton Academical, St Mirren will be one of the favourites to face relegation this season as they have narrowly avoided the drop for the last couple of seasons, including staying up through the playoffs in 2019.
Another side who have lost a host of players and manger Jim Goodwin has a big job Keeping Saints up.
12th) Hamilton
Since being promoted in 2014 to the Premiership, the majority of Scottish football fans have predicted that Hamilton would be relegated season after season.
Favourites to go down in eyes but will they defy the odds and stay up again!!
