Scotland Premiership Team Preview Part I A-H

Scotland Premier League Preview Part I A-H

Aberdeen : Last season finish 2nd with 75 points.  2014 income £11m – Payout - Wages £11m Debt £0m. Major deals in: Driver,  McLean and Ward – Major deals out: McManus and Low. Aberdeen had one of their finest seasons for many years last time out – getting 2^nd in the league and winning Scottish Cup. They defeated Celtic three times during the season and that’s a great yardstick of how far they have come. Coach Derek McInnes is a modern day manager, utilising all the current technology available – Aberdeen may have a huge problem keeping him as Rangers are on the prowl.

Prediction: 2nd in Premiership.

Celtic: Last season finish 1st with 92 points. 2014 income £65m – Payout – Wages £60m Debt £11m. Major deals in: Armstrong, Boyata, Janko and Mackay-Steven – Major deals out: Guidetti, Matthews and Chalmers.  Celtic have steadied the ship financially over the past few years with Champions League success but failure last year to make the Group stages meant better players had to be sold. This year Celtic couldn’t afford to sign striker Guidetti. They lost Matthews who is a talented full back also. Celtic should still run away with the league title and more than likely contest 1 of the cups. The Champions League group stages is a must if Celtic want to improve the squad. Coach Ronny Dalia had a tough introduction to Scotland with a shakey start but he imposed himself on the team and they moved up the table. With a high pressing style and high tempo football he has improved Celtic domestically for sure. This group of players is good enough to retake the title but I don’t think they can make an impression on the UCL.

Prediction: 1st in Premiership.

Dundee: Last season finish 6^th with 45 points.  Income and expenditure for Dundee is not listed due to them being in recovery from bankruptcy – but they did record a yearly loss of just under £1m Major deals in: Heffernan, Low and Loy – Major deals out: none . A finish of  6^th and a place in the Championship group was way more than even the most optimistic of Dundee fans could have expected. Need to clear up the injuries which hampered the squad. Have retained the same players and brought in a few more so should be looking at a similar finish position.

Prediction:  7^th in Premiership.

Dundee United:  Last season finish 5th with 56 points. 2014 income £6m – Payout – Wages £4m Debt £0m. Major ins: Dixon, Badul and Muirhead.  Major outs: Armstrong, Ciftci and Mackey-Steven.   As a business model Dundee United is one of the most successful in Scotland Premiership. Posting a profit on the year and that was before over £10m of recent transfers out the club. However to continue with the onfield success they need to keep bringing in talent to avoid dropping levels.  Dundee Utd finished 5^th and at the start of the season they would have accepted that – however around Christmas they were playing really well and 5^th ended up being a poor result as they could have challenged everyone bar Celtic. Coach McNamara likes to play attacking football and is willing to tryout with the youngsters.  However United seem a bit lax at the back and tend to let silly goals in.

Prediction: 6th in Premiership.

Hamilton: Last season finish 7^th with 53 points. 2014 income £6.5m – Payout – Wages £3.2m Debt £0m. Major deals in: Hasselbaink and Morris – Major deals out: Andreu and Antoine-Curier – Hamilton started the season well and looked likely for a decent finish. However they became listless pretty early on and ended up stuck in the relegation group. They lost coach Alex Neil to Premier League Norwich early in the season – and he was a big part of the early success of the team. New player manager Martin Canning is not universally liked by the fans and is seen as the reason the team dropped a few levels last season.  

Prediction: 11^th in Premiership.

Hearts: Last season finish 1^st in Championship. 2014 income £6.5m – Payout – Wages £5.4m Debt unavailable after bankruptcy in 2013. Major deals in: Anderson and Branco – Major deals out:  Wilson, Carrick and Holt. Hearts tore up  the Championship, winning at a canter. The failed Lithuanian money men are out of the picture all together and Hearts are supposed to be almost debt free now. They have took a hit with players moving out but they will adapt well to the Premiership I am sure.

Prediction: 4^th in Premiership.

Click here for Scotland Premier League Preview Part II I-S