We and everyone else in Scottish football live in a bubble that is largely a media invention.
If you listen to the way they talk about the game here, you’d think this country only had two teams. And sure, when you haven’t had a title won by a club outside of Glasgow since the 1980s, now forty years into that cycle, it can certainly feel that way.
But we all know there have been close races at least twice in that timeframe, and we are long overdue for another one. I’m not saying this is it, but it will happen.
There’s a very good chance that when a title challenge outside Glasgow emerges, nobody will see it coming. It will strike like a bolt from the blue. We even have a recent example from south of the border, in the so-called “biggest league in the world”—the miracle of Leicester City.
I don’t know what the odds were on Leicester winning the league, but they would have been astronomical, completely off the scale.
Did they have the best players in the league? No. Did they have the best overall team in the league? No. Did they have the best manager? Again, no. And even when the results started to roll in, and the points began to mount up, even when they went to big grounds and secured big wins, everyone was just waiting for the wheels to fall off.
Because something like that wasn’t supposed to happen, right? Modern football is designed to prevent such outcomes. The clubs with the most money win the trophies. There were at least a dozen clubs in that league with bigger budgets than Leicester. If the title challenge had come from a club outside the usual top four but one that regularly qualified for Europe, no one would have blinked. They would have taken it seriously far earlier.
But they call it the “miracle of Leicester” for a reason.
It felt like something magical.
Claudio Ranieri managed to take a side that looked like they had no business competing for the title and elevated them to the place where they felt they could beat anyone. And they had Jamie Vardy, a striker who could score against anybody. Yet Vardy wasn’t a once-in-a-generation talent. We’re not talking about a Harry Kane here. And Leicester wasn’t a once-in-a-generation team—although what they achieved certainly was.
When a title challenge outside Glasgow finally happens here, it’ll look a lot like that. It won’t come from a side packed with exceptional players, nor led by an iconic manager. But somewhere along the way, that team will start to gather momentum, will start to believe that something seemingly impossible could actually happen and that will power the miracle.
It could be a side like this Aberdeen team we’re playing today—starting strong, piling up points early in the season, coming into big games like this one, and taking a result from it. Hopefully, today’s not the day, but when that challenge comes, this is how it will unfold. This is what a title challenge from outside Glasgow will be built on.
And you just never know. It’s precisely because it will come from nowhere that we won’t see it until it’s right in front of us and too obvious to ignore. The season will look like every other, at first. But instead of one or two teams pulling away from the rest, some unexpected side will go on a run. The thing is, even when that initial run ends—as I suspect Aberdeen’s will today—this team won’t fade back into mediocrity. They won’t just crumble and disappear.
Instead, they’ll bounce back. They’ll keep playing well. They’ll do things we haven’t seen a mid-table team do in years.
If Aberdeen loses today, their shot at redemption could come soon enough. They’ve got the Ibrox club at home in the near future. And if they win that one, they’re back in the mix, and suddenly, they have to be taken seriously all over again. That’s the trick. That’s the key.
The media is doing its best to downplay this.
But today’s match is between the two form clubs in the country. This is a top-of-the-table clash between the two best sides. It won’t decide the title, and it won’t determine what kind of season Aberdeen will have—but if they even get a draw today, their momentum will be sky-high, and they’ll feel like they can beat anyone. If they win against the Ibrox club, then get ready to take them seriously. They will have proven they deserve it.
First against second today, level on points.
We’ve had a brilliant start to the domestic campaign, and so have they. They’ve won 13 games in a row. No matter what the media might say, think, or believe, this is our toughest domestic fixture so far. This is the best side we’ve faced outside Europe.
I can’t wait for this one. So bring it on, and I’ll see you on the other side.