Scottish Professional Football League preview

Craig Beattie of Hearts

HEARTS

Oh dear. A poor 10th place finish last season as financial mismanagement finally took its toll on the Tynecastle side, although the only positive was a League Cup Final appearance against Paisley side St Mirren. Several players would be released or sold as the season progressed

After finally entering administration weeks ago, they start this season with -15 points, which should see them relegated before we even kick off. After all, in the last 10 seasons, only Gretna went down with a gap of more than 15 points, and that was because they went bust. John Sutton, Darren Barr and Fraser Mullen have left the club during the summer while Danny Wilson signed on a permanent deal from Liverpool after his loan spell, but the club will be playing youth more often than not, and are in for a long season.

League Prediction: 12th – Hearts are going down.

HIBS

The other Edinburgh side didn’t really fare much better last season, as Leigh Griffiths dragged the Hibees to 7th place and a Scottish Cup Final appearance, which took Hibs into the Europa League qualifiers, where they were embarrassed by Swedish side Malmo 9-0 on aggregate with a 7-0 thumping at home.

Pat Fenlon seems to have done some good business in the summer, signing Fraser Mullen, Owain Tudor-Jones and Rowan Vine from fellow SPL sides and bringing former Kilmarnock player Michael Nelson and Swindon striker James Collins up to Scotland. Losing Gary Deegan and David Wotherspoon though as well as Griffiths returning back to Wolves after his loan spell will hurt the side however, and I don’t see anything else in the current squad to suggest his 28 goal haul last season will not be missed.

League Prediction: 9th – Leigh Griffiths made a weak side look a lot better than it was last season, and they’ll really struggle without him.

INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE

Last season’s surprise package were expected to be in a relegation battle with Dundee. Instead, the Caley finished in an outstanding 4th place, only denied a European place on the last day of the season at Perth side St Johnstone.

Terry Butcher’s journeymen and youngsters looked poor on paper, but the form of Andrew Shinnie and Antonio Reguero alongside the 23 league goals of striker Billy McKay saw the side fly up the league. They were good value for it as well, as they outplayed most of the league and beat Celtic at Parkhead for the first time in the league in their history.

Reguero has left the club to move to Kilmarnock, when Owain Tudor-Jones has left for Hibs while Scotland international Shinnie will try his luck down south with BirminghamCity. Torbjørn Agdestein and Carl Tremarco have recently joined the club from English football, while seven players signed at the beginning of June. The biggest ‘name’ of these would be reality TV star and winger Ben Greenhalgh, who signed from Ebbsfleet Utd.

League Prediction: 6th – and only just. Caley finished as the best Highland team last team and I expect them to do so again, but I feel Scottish defences have worked out how to defend against McKay and he won’t score 20+ goals again. Also, Andy Shinnie really made the team tick and Reguero saved them a few times last season.