KEITH JACKSON

YEARS from now when historians reflect on the Great Lockdown of 2020 they will see that Scottish football led the way as the true pioneer of this pandemic.

Records will show that the game in this country descended into a state of complete and utter madness long before the rest of the real world eventually caved in and lost the plot too.

It’s a scary place out there these days and some of the events of the last few weeks have been enough to make you wonder if there’s much to be gained from ever going out the front door again.

Certainly, the vein-popping insanity which has throttled the SPFL since March shows no sign of loosening its grip any time soon.

In fact, it will be cranked up again over the next few days as Hearts and Partick Thistle kick the whole

drama into the Court of Session, having already issued the rest of Scotland’s clubs with a £10million relegation ransom note.

If they get their way we’re all about to be dragged back to the very start of this crisis and the decision to call time on a season after it had been infected by the same virus which has unleashed such suffering and chaos.

From Dundee and their mysterious flip-flopping to Neil Doncaster and his dubious back channelling, it could all be dragged back into the public domain like a recurring nightmare.

The trouble is, where there was almost unanimous sympathy back then for the plight of these two clubs, and for Thistle in particular, the mood around this new normal has taken a turn for the worse.

There are some clubs in agreement that the M8 alliance have been left with no option but to press the big red button.

But there are others, and plenty of them, who have been infuriated by the manner in which they have gone about it and, in particular, by the enormity of their demands.

The threat to trigger an interim interdict to prevent next season from kicking off as scheduled on August 1 has also