Fresh from an unbeaten domestic season which was burnished by a shimmering triumvirate of trophies, it seems Brendan Rodgers and his Celtic troops can do no wrong. By all accounts, the Parkhead club are so far ahead of everybody, Rodgers may as well be making plans for the 2055/56 season when the Intergalactic Champions League qualifiers take place on the outer rings of Saturn.

Given the light years that separate the best from the rest, the remaining top-flight teams in Scotland could be forgiven for feeling a bit lost in space.

"It's difficult for the other clubs to compete with Celtic because at the moment they are flying high,” said Alan McRae, the president of the Scottish Football Association. That, in itself, is a fairly obvious observation from one of the high heid yins at Hampden but as he peered ahead to next season, McRae suggested he would like to see Celtic brought back down to earth.

That will be easier said than done, of course. Like a Colossus of London Road, Celtic are standing head and shoulders above them all and, under Rodgers’ managerial nous, the club’s tyrannical rule over the Scottish scene would make some of the world’s most strident dictatorships look like a series of fairly timorous regimes.

McRae remains highly complimentary of Celtic’s record-breaking conquests during the season. Treble winning campaigns don’t come along every year, after all, but the way things are going, you wouldn’t bet against them repeating the feat again. And again.

It’s a major ask, of course, and McRae certainly wouldn’t be losing sleep if he saw Celtic knocked out of next season’s Bet Fred Cup in the last eight. His observations on Celtic’s dominance may have been delivered with a wry grin but the message was clear.

“They had fantastic achievement to come through both cups and the league being undefeated, especially on the 50th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions and it's quite amazing that it happened,” said McRae. "They have done it once, hopefully it won't happen again next season because we've got to have challengers. They know you need to have people challenging, otherwise it will get very boring and dreary.”

Aberdeen gave a sturdy account of themselves during the 2016/17 season and pushed Celtic all the way in the Scottish Cup final. While Rangers fumbled and bumbled along, Derek McInnes’ men established themselves as the second force in Scottish football. With Pedro Caixinha, the Rangers manager, starting to put his own stamp on his squad with some global wheeling and dealing in the transfer market, those of a royal blue persuasion are hoping for a forceful re-emergence in the new season. Hearts, meanwhile, could do with getting their fingers out again while Hibernian’s long overdue return to the top flight is a welcome addition.

"We definitely need a good, strong Rangers,” said McRae, with words that will probably go down like a sack of spanners with Celtic fans. “They are back but they still have a bit to go.

“I am sure they will (get there) eventually. Hibs are back, which is good. With Aberdeen and St Johnstone, who are difficult to beat, I think we’re in for a really exciting season. We've just got to have our two top teams performing at the highest level while trying to get the coefficient back up (in Europe)."

Dragging the national team back into the upper echelons of the European game, meanwhile, will need more than a few pulleys and guy ropes. McRae, speaking before Scotland’s World Cup qualifying encounter with England last night, has always been a strong ally of Gordon Strachan and his admiration of his old friend remains undiminished.

“To me, it (the appointment of Strachan) has been a step up from the previous few managers we have had,” insisted McRae. “When you see him with the guys on the park, the work rate and the tactical exercises they go through, he's a great coach. If you think of the teams he has played for, who he has managed and what he's won, then he's as good as we've got going around.”