The Full Scottish - August 2025
Welcome to the Full Scottish Football Report – Aug 25 saw the continuation of an early season tradition in Scotland as both Celtic and Rangers crash out of European competitions.
Served by Brian P. Dunleavy
Slow Start for Celtic and Rangers in the New Scottish Season:
Both Celtic and Rangers began the season with disappointing performances, including early defeats and lackluster results in domestic and European competitions.
Hearts’ Ambitious Plans Under Owner Tony Bloom:
Heart of Midlothian has received significant investment and strategic backing from Tony Bloom, who aims to challenge Celtic and Rangers by possibly finishing second or even winning the league within a decade.
Lyall Cameron’s Comments Cause Tensions:
Rangers midfielder Lyall Cameron upset Dundee fans and club members with comments that appeared to belittle his former team, leading to a backlash and highlighting the tensions in Scottish football.
Online Abuse Leads to Resignations in Scottish Clubs:
The increase in personal and online abuse has prompted the resignations of club officials at Queen’s Park and previously at Motherwell, reflecting a concerning trend in Scottish football culture.
Scottish Clubs Exit European Competitions Early:
Celtic and Rangers faced early eliminations from the Champions League and Europa League, creating a sense of disappointment and raising questions about the clubs’ European competitiveness.
Can Hearts Really Conquer Scotland?
Give Tony Bloom credit for one thing: He has ba… er… courage. The owner of Brighton & Hove Albion, who this summer invested £10 million in Edinburgh club Heart of Midlothian, has bold plans. He has given the Tynecastle side access to his Jamestown Analytics company to support player recruitment and, earlier this week, he claimed the Jambos have “a very good chance of at least being second [in the Scottish Premiership] this season.” Then, he added, Hearts can even win the league title within the next decade.
Wow!
For the uninitiated, such statements are big news because Aberdeen are the last team not named Celtic or Rangers to win Scotland’s top flight—and they did so in the 1984-85 season. So yes, it’s been more than 40 years.
Hearts last won the league in 1959-60, and they most recently were runners-up in the 2005-06 campaign, pipping a struggling Rangers side by one point.
The only other time Celtic and/or Rangers didn’t finish one-two in the league was in the early 2010s, when the Ibrox side were relegated due to financial difficulties and had to work their way up through Scotland’s lower leagues for several seasons. In other words, history doesn’t exactly support Bloom’s argument.
However, as brash as the Brighton owner may be, we applaud his ambition. Frankly, knowing that history—not to mention the wide budgetary gulf between Glasgow’s big two and the other teams in Scotland—most club executives haven’t even bothered to aim so high.
Ambitious Hearts
Indeed, as “big” as Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibernian and, perhaps, Dundee United may be in Scottish terms, none have ever declared their intent to finish anywhere higher than third in the Premiership table (at least with Rangers in the top flight)—usually, even before the season begins.
For more than four decades, the plan has been to qualify for Europe (and flame out ever so quickly) and hope to upset either Celtic or Rangers on their way to a domestic cup, as Aberdeen did in the Scottish Cup final last term.
We can’t help but think that lack of ambition (and, well, money) discouraged more than a few players from signing with Scottish clubs not playing in Glasgow.
So, is this the dawn of a new era? New Hearts head coach Derek McInnes is a believer.
“You want your owners and people that you work for at the club to have that ambition,” he told the press this week. “There’s a clear ambition from everybody at Hearts … to try and drive the whole thing forward here.”
We’ll see where that drive takes them.
Dundee Slighted By Former Player Lyall Cameron
Mind what you say in Scottish football. That seems to the lesson two weeks into a long season. Rangers midfielder Lyall Cameron learned it the hard way when he appeared to take a swipe at his former club, Dundee, in advance of the two sides meeting at Ibrox on Saturday.
Here is what he said to the media in the days leading up to the match, per the BBC:
“Do I like going under the radar? Yeah, definitely. Look, I was never going to be a massive signing for Rangers, coming from a small club like Dundee,” the 22-year-old midfielder noted.
He added, in response to a question about the expectations at Rangers, “The speed of play and the intensity and everything has been totally different. It’s almost like a different world for me, to be honest. A different job now that I’m here, like as a full-time football player, whereas it’s a bit different in Dundee.”
That the comments came from a graduate of the Dundee youth academy stirred anger Tayside. That they likely motivated his former teammates, who left Ibrox with a point after a 1-1 draw (thanks to a late penalty for Rangers) perhaps ruffled more than a few feathers in Govan.
Cameron was in the starting XI on the day, and didn’t do much to distinguish himself before being subbed off in the second half.
Online Abuse Fallout At Queen’s Park
Meanwhile, for the second time in 2025, online abuse has led to a club executive’s decision to resign his post, this time at Queen’s Park. In January, Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell opted to resign in the face of online abuse. Now, Queen’s Park have confirmed that club president Graeme Shields has resigned.
Shields claims he has been on the receiving end of “personal and online abuse” as well, without providing details, along with others at the club. He had been at Queen’s Park since January of last year.
“I have taken this decision after much deliberation, particularly having experienced an increased level of personal and online abuse towards myself and others associated with the club in recent months,” Shields told the press.
Strange times, indeed.
Celtic, Rangers Suffer Early Season Wobbles
The panic sets in early in Glasgow. On one side of the city, Rangers under new manager Russell Martin have dropped points in their first two Premiership matches and failed to look all that convincing in a 4-2 League Cup round of 16 victory against League One side Alloa Athletic.
And now, Tuesday’s 3-1 home loss to Club Brugge in the Champions’ League playoff round has the collective heart rate in and around Ibrox at dangerously high levels. To be fair, the Belgians are hardly lightweights.
“I understand the intensity and emotion here but it can’t change the way we work and become a weight around the players necks,” Martin told the media after that match. “I came to this club knowing it wasn’t going to be easy or a quick fix. I hope we’ll be judged in May and by then we’ll be in a really good place and winning stuff.” He may not get the luxury of that much time.
Meanwhile, in Glasgow’s East End, a segment of the Celtic support is at wit’s end over what they see as a relative lack of transfer activity during the summer window, which has about two weeks to go.
This despite the fact the Hoops have brought in SEVEN new players already this summer, including returning hero Kieran Tierney (granted, on a free).
None have been “big names,” mind, but the Parkhead side haven’t swum in those waters in some time. The modus operandi most of this century so far has been to sign younger players—like Swede Benjamin Nygren and Japanese international Shin Yamada, two of the six new recruits—and develop them before selling them on at a significant profit. Which is exactly what they have done with the likes of Kyogo last January and Nicolas Kuhn last month.
The problem, in some supporters’ eyes, is that these two players specifically haven’t been adequately replaced—and the feeling is that this disconnect may push manager Brendan Rodgers out the door when his contract expires at the end of the season.
“What I want to do is make the team the very best that we can, and I’m hoping that by the end of the window that we can be that,” the Irishman told the media this week. “As a football manager and coach, I would want it now because I’m going into games here that mean everything for this club going forward. But if we don’t have it in the building now, then we have to work with what’s here.”
Celtic suffer fans’ Ire
Should the Hoops fail to qualify for the Champions’ League—and that’s very much an open question after a 0-0 draw against Kairat at Celtic Park Wednesday in the first leg of the playoff—there will be a number of supporters crying, “I told you so.” (They were saying much worse in the terraces on Wednesday.)
And should ’Gers also not qualify it will only hurt the European fortunes for future Scottish champions and runners-up.
In the all-important coefficient rankings, Scotland are currently 17th, just behind Switzerland and Austria. The ideal placing is 15th or higher, which would mean future domestic champions would automatically qualify for Europe’s top tournament.
However, currently at 15th, Austria are 2.8 points ahead of Scotland, and for Celtic or Rangers to make up that gap, they would need to win seven league-phase matches in the 2025-26 Champions’ League.
A tall order to be sure. And if it can’t be achieved, in 2027-28, the Premiership champions would have to face three Champions’ League qualifiers instead of the current one.
It may be time to panic after all.
Celtic, Rangers Crash Out Of Champions League
The past week marked another turning point for Scottish clubs competing in Europe. On Tuesday, Celtic lost in the Champions’ League playoff to Kazakhstan club Kairat Almaty, on penalties. The spot kicks followed what was a turgid performance from the Hoops over two legs—and 210 minutes—of football.
“We didn’t do enough to deserve to qualify,” captain and midfielder Callum McGregor told the press after the match. “The players are probably the most frustrated out of everyone.”
Well, not quite. The large segment of the Celtic support clamoring for additions to the squad in the lead-up to the tie have taken the opportunity to scream an angry, “We told you so!”
And manager Brendan Rodgers’ post-match comments hardly diffused any concerns over a disconnect between the dugout and the club board
“The last thing you want to do in football is manufacture your own stress but all we can do now is look at where we’re at as a football club and decide where we want to go,” the Irishman said to the gathered media moments after the defeat.
By the way, Kairat were 311th in the UEFA club coefficient rankings before the tie against 56th-ranked Celtic.
The feeling around the Parkhead club was hardly buoyed by the fact that two of the more expensive squad players—Adam Idah and Daizen Maeda, the latter of whom may depart for pastures new before the transfer window closes (and the former of whom some supporters wish would depart)—both missed penalties. And so, it’s on… down… to the Europa League for the Bhoys.
Rangers Thrashed
On the other side of Glasgow, meanwhile, Rangers until recently had been able to offset their poor domestic form by pointing to, and touting, their European feats. However, after falling behind to Belgium’s Club Brugge 3-1 at Ibrox before ultimately losing 9-1 (you read that right) on aggregate, they too have Europa League football to “look forward to.”
’Gers now head into the first Glasgow derby of the season Sunday in desperate need of a win. Then again, so do Celtic.
The side that emerges with a victory—assuming either can regroup—will restore some good feeling, at least domestically.
However, nothing will erase the European disappointment felt by both of Scotland’s big two.
The Europa League simply isn’t good enough—though it could be argued that it may be the best they can do.