THE MONDAY JURY
1 With the Old Firm back in pre-season training this week, which club looks in better shape?
Celtic go into the campaign looking more stable after last season’s title win. At Ibrox there is uncertainty over the futures of key players Joe Aribo, Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent. Gio van Bronckhorst will have his work cut out if he has to replace them all.
It is pretty much as you were. Neither of the big two have lost any of their top players and have strengthened their squads. We won’t get a true reflection until nearer the end of the window.
Celtic appear well placed, tying down Cameron CarterVickers while deals for Jota and Alexandro Bernabei are close. Rangers have added John Souttar and have to strengthen further, especially with uncertainty over Aribo, Kent and Morelos.
2 With the focus now on staging Euro 2028, is the National Stadium up to big-tournament standard?
No. It’s miles short. Hampden needs a Wembley style rebuild to make it truly fit for purpose as one of Europe’s crown jewel sporting venues. There is no doubt the Hampden experience can be improved but it was shown at Euro 2020 that it can still be a venue for the big stage. With the global economy tanking, now isn’t the time to plough millions into refurb projects. But Hampden is well past its best. Fans will feel short-changed if talk of a new-look stadium means a lick of paint for the hospitality suites.
3 This season will finally see VAR in Scotland but does it make sense to wait until the midway point?
This has chaos written all over it. But the fact remains – the sooner we bring in the technology, the better.
VAR is likely to run in the background this season and will come in after the World Cup. It would be better to use it over the whole season but it clearly isn’t feasible or everything can’t be in place in time before the turn of the year.
Not much. Even when we make the right move we somehow seem to make a mess of it. I await the controversy when the title is decided by a VAR decision in the second half of the season when a similar incident was missed at the start. Nothing surer.
Wimbledon starts today with Andy Murray facing James Duckworth. How far will our lad go this year?
He’s moving well again, beginning to look like the player who topped the world rankings before his body broke down. If he can stay in one piece over the fortnight, he could make a fairytale return to the greatest stage of all. But that’s a big if.
Hopefully he can get into the second week but he will need to be fully fit and over his recent injury concerns. Wimbledon certainly brings out the best in him.
The man with the bionic hip has been moving well in recent weeks. Hopefully his recent injury scare is nothing to be worried about and we can have one last hurrah at SW19.