Rebranding the top flight does not eradicate all of its flaws.

There were worthy intentions in the merger between the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League, but they are incapable of addressing deep-seated conventions.

Even the launch event of the Scottish Professional Football League confirmed the established concerns, since questions tended to centre on Rangers and the lack of a sponsor. SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster will be accustomed to the narrative, but he was entitled to stress that significant progress has been made.

Nonetheless, nobody ought to expect league reconstruction to bring about radical alterations. Celtic already stand alone in every aspect. They are so superior that the only intrigue around the title race involves by how many points they will retain their crown. The absence of Rangers has merely reinforced the disparity between the division's leading team and the rest. The challenge for Neil Lennon is to maintain the competitive standards of his players, since his side could lose seven games, and draw a further seven, last season while still comfortably securing the title.

Celtic's pre-eminence cannot be undermined by structural alterations. Selling Victor Wanyama and Gary Hooper does not even materially weaken Lennon's side compared to their top-flight rivals, since most other clubs have been forced into a period of downsizing. Further new players will arrive at Celtic Park before the end of the transfer window, which will at least make demands on the manager's ability to accommodate different personalities and talent into his side.

"The new league campaign has snuck up on us," said Lennon, whose team open with a trip to Ross County on Saturday. "We haven't really touched on the league campaign, and it kicks off in seven days. But we will be ready."

And the Celtic manager's take on who is likely to be best of the rest? "Iain Vigurs will be a big loss to Ross County," Lennon said. "He's a technician. I've liked him for quite a while, he's a really good footballer. Derek McInnes will bring a different mindset to Aberdeen. He has obviously recruited a stronger squad.

"St Johnstone will be there or thereabouts, and Motherwell have a winning mentality and a very good manager. You always wonder if they are going to be able to keep it going because they keep losing important players, but Stuart McCall seems to find these little nuggets in the lower leagues in England and they come up and thrive."

It is the Champions League that will provide the glamour for Celtic's season, and only drawing Rangers in one of the cup competitions would cause any commotion among their domestic chores.

Scotland's top division can seem a league of extremes, and that is only exacerbated as it relaunches as the Premiership. While Celtic have been stockpiling cash, most of the other clubs have accumulated disadvantages during the summer, with Hearts the most notable example. With Heart of Midlothian plc still in administration, the team begins the campaign with a 15-point handicap due to having gone into liquidation, leaving Gary Locke unable to add to his squad.

Drama will congregate in the lower half of the league, and supporters of the Tynecastle side will hope it becomes intense. Overcoming the deficit is possible, since other teams are unlikely to be consistent throughout the campaign. St Mirren tended to be erratic in the last campaign and Partick Thistle are new to the division. The fact the side that finishes 11th will be involved in a play-offs at the end of term introduces a further element of tension. The idea is to grip fans so they turn up in greater numbers, although Doncaster must curse the fate that saw Hearts encounter their financial collapse at the same time as Scottish football's latest new dawn.

As well as leaving the Tynecastle side clear favourites for relegation, there is also the possibility that a Company Voluntary Arrangement will not be agreed with creditors in the coming months, leading to the liquidation of HMFC plc and new buyers being needed to purchase the business and assets of the club.

That potential scenario must horrify the SPFL, since the precedent in other countries has been for a team in that situation to drop out of the league with all of the results voided. Hopes for a fresh start would wither in the aftermath of such a calamity, although the period of administration had long been anticipated at Tynecastle.

"There were always slight concerns with the guys at the top and it wasn't always quite as comfortable as you might have wanted as a player," said Lee Wallace, the former Hearts defender who is now at Rangers. "I am sad more than angry about [administration]. They will do well when it has been sorted and come out stronger as a club. I think they will [stay up] because they have some good players.

"It certainly wouldn't be great [if Hearts were relegated]. Scottish football is crying out for the Old Firm game and if Hearts were to go down, you'd be missing the Edinburgh derby as well. That wouldn't be ideal for Scottish football as it tries to move forward and improve things for the nation. I just hope it doesn't happen." Few clubs can rest wholly easily when it comes to finances. Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Ross County are geographically isolated from the rest of the league, but they are also more stable and self-reliant. A powerbase can grow in the Highlands while other teams have to adjust their balance sheets.

Stephen Thompson felt he was being bold in sanctioning the return of David Goodwillie to Dundee United on loan, but the rate of season ticket sales has fallen compared to last summer. Fans may yet respond to the Tannadice chairman's efforts, but the club are reportedly paying a hefty portion of the Blackburn Rovers striker's wage at a time when United manager Jackie McNamara is involved in general cost-cutting. Resourcefulness will be the most valuable commodity in the Premiership. McNamara was appointed as the successor to Peter Houston last season because he had shown a gift for maximising players' performances at Partick Thistle. Thompson envisions the manager keeping United competitive while reducing the budget made available to him.

The theme is common. Motherwell must be cursing their misfortune, since the Europa League qualifying draw is taking them to Russia. The cost of the charter flight to the away leg has used up the last of Stuart McCall's transfer budget, which the manager intended to use to sign one final player to add pace to his squad.

Compromises are inevitable, but he must feel aggrieved since the success he achieved last season has proved to be so limiting. However, signing Paul Lawson, Iain Vigurs, Stephen McManus and James McFadden was a shrewd response to the departures of so many key players during the summer.

Aberdeen, under Derek McInnes, have shown ambition worthy of a side that has the resources to finish second, while Kilmarnock have attempted to overcome their constricted resources by appointing, in Allan Johnston, a manager who made a tight budget seem immaterial with Queen of the South last season.

A mood of optimism, however fragile, is valuable after two years of turmoil, anger and exasperation. Every administrative figure in the game in Scotland must wish that pessimism could have been eradicated as part of the summer of upheaval.