World Cup? What World Cup?

With the restart just days away, let’s recap what’s been a rather quiet few months in the top flight…

Sligo shockers & rubbish records

Lowest-ever Champions League tallies, getting scudded by a team from Ireland before Love Island was finished, and becoming famous for falling asleep on the telly. You know it’s been a successful European tour for our clubs when that’s how you summarise it.

This was the campaign where Scotland had five – yes, FIVE – teams heading off to fly the flag, with three of them guaranteed group-stage football.

What could possibly go wrong?

Step forward Sligo Rovers. The League of Ireland team won at Fir Park in a Conference League qualifier first leg back in July before Motherwell were punted out of the competition 3-0 on aggregate after the return. It would be enough to see manager Graham Alexander depart in the immediate aftermath.

Right, Dundee United, your turn next. The Tannadice side got off to an incredible start in the early days of Jack Ross’ tenure, beating Dutch team AZ Alkmaar on Tayside in a performance dripping with confidence, guile and class. Sadly for Ross, all of those characteristics were left at the Lorraine Kelly departure lounge at Dundee Airport en route to a 7-0 blootering in the return.

It was all too much for some of the large United travelling support who streamed out early or, in the case of one poor Arab, went for a mid-trouncing snooze, much to the amusement of the local television director. Sweet dreams are not made of this.

Last season’s third-placed Heart of Midlothian launched a bid for the Europa League groups, only for Zurich to elbow the Edinburgh team into the Conference League. By far the Scottish side with the best group campaign, Robbie Neilson’s side didn’t get out their section but did beat Rigas FS twice on their way to finishing third. Defeats by Istanbul Basaksehir and Fiorentina will have smarted, but hey, their fans got a couple of decent away days out of it.

For the Old Firm, the Champions League groups beckoned. Celtic glided straight in as Premiership winners and put up a strong fight against holders Real Madrid in a star-studded opener before subsiding. It would be a theme that would follow Ange Postecoglou’s side throughout the remainder of the group campaign. Two draws against Shakhtar Donetsk was all they had to show on the way to finishing bottom of Group F.

Rangers, meanwhile, were arguably the team you’d have backed to do the best on the European stage. The Europa League finalists of last season stunned PSV Eindhoven to make their Champions League return after a 12-year absence, but there was little joy garnered from the experience.

A 4-0 chasing in Amsterdam kicked things off, with heavy defeats also meted out by Napoli and Liverpool, ensuring Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side recorded the worst-ever group-stage campaign of any team.

Never stopping & never really starting

Back in the Premiership, it’s been a peculiar campaign, with matches crowbarred in at a frantic pace.

Celtic, despite one slip up away to St Mirren on 18 September, have been a domestic juggernaut, particularly in the games preceding that 2-0 reverse in Paisley. Prior to that game in September, they’d won every league match with a goal difference of 25-1. Since, it’s been 25-10 from eight straight victories. The narrative of Postecoglou’s team has changed, but the story at the end remains the same.

Inconsistency, a glut of games, managerial changes and a lack of fit options have blighted the campaigns of others, however.

Rangers have toiled to build upon their run to Seville or Scottish Cup success and now sit nine points adrift of Celtic after dropping points in three of their last five games. Combine that with their Champions League disaster, the winter break has come at a critical moment for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team, who even at this early stage are needing to reboot.

Questions have been asked by fans over recruitment, with Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo-shaped holes being alluded to, particularly in recent weeks and on the European stage. Finding an attacking option on the right is still an issue; getting a consistent tune out of Ryan Kent another.

Antonio Colak’s goals in attack have offered encouragement, though, and getting more out of other newcomers such as Malik Tillman and the currently injured Tom Lawrence will be key to salvaging a title race.

Aberdeen have found themselves under Jim Goodwin and have taken advantage of third-place rivals Hearts’ heavy fixture list and mounting injury pile to surge into third. Tucked in behind is the remarkable David Martindale, who has turned Livingston into a real force. That’s when he’s not repainting the lines or fixing broken goal posts like he had to prior to his team’s game against Ross County.

Beyond that, only seven points separate fifth from 11th, with Hearts not the only ones to be shorn of some first-team starters due to various knocks.

In truth, there will be several supports from those in Leith, fans of Ross County, or even top-flight newcomers Kilmarnock, without striker Kyle Lafferty after his 10-game ban for a sectarian remark, who are waiting on their respective seasons really igniting.

Lights, camera, controversy

Rumour has it that streams of children were spotted out guising at Hallowe’en ago dressed in black, wearing a headset and holding two fingers to their right ear.

“Tonight maw, I’m going to be Willie Collum. Silent check in progress…”

Scottish football has a habit of consuming itself whenever something controversial happens, so it should be of no surprise that the introduction of VAR has done little to quell any misapprehensions among supporters that their club gets a raw deal.

Teething problems were always likely. Yet there have been several delays and incidents that have caused consternation among supporters, managers and pundits. And this weekend there was more than one penalty call with which the Sportscene panel disagreed.

Scottish football fans only need to look to the Premier League and other nations to see the system is not perfect and it’s something many will hope returns a bit more fine tuned.

For us chittering back home, it can’t come quickly enough.