The Season Begins - Sort Of

The new Scottish Premiership season has started with little fanfare, but that misses the point of league football...

By: Lewis Murray

If a football season kicks off in a forest with no one around to see it, did it really start at all?

The SPFL season is underway - no really, it is, I promise you - and I’m not surprised no one has really noticed yet.

There has been next to no hype, no real build up, and, as always, Actual Football is in competition for attention with its bigger, more glamorous cousin: the (secretly incredible tedious) Summer Transfer Bonanza.

This season’s lack of build up is the fault of several things, and the biggest is what it has to follow.

Not only does the SPFL have to follow up a World Cup - the biggest and longest World Cup ever, and the first in a generation to have a cameo appearance from Scotland - but it also has to follow up the most exciting and unpredictable season of Scottish football in the 21st century.

It packed, by my careful estimations, around 4 seasons worth of drama into one campaign, and it still feels a little strange that we have to go again after that level of craziness.

Every football season fundamentally comes a bit too early. The transfer window is still open and teams are in various stages of readiness in terms of both fitness and quality - the season tumbles out of its front door, still tying its shoelaces as it runs for the bus.

But another issue is that none of the stories have really emerged yet.