Yay!
The football is back. Oh, how I've missed your thrilling games, your overpaid superstars and the imminent threat of violence when surreptitiously checking Spurs scores on the mobile. What? What do you mean it's not been the Premiership for years? It's the Scottish Premiership? Well, in that case, is there not something else to bet on?
The Tenner Bet tends to steer clear of football betting in the early weeks of the season, not least because there is so little form to go on and less so when it involves Scotland's premier league. A couple of cuffings at the hands of German second division sides is hardly a barometer for the teams that are likely to do well during the course of the season since just about every team can tick that box.
SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP
Three bets stand out in the newly (sort of) reconstructed top flight this weekend. Aberdeen are evens to beat Kilmarnock, St Johnstone are 6/5 to see off Hearts and Inverness Caledonian Thistle are 11/10 to defeat St Mirren. To my mind, these are 'last-season' prices. I suppose that also makes them 'early-season prices' yet the bookmakers appear to have been overly generous. Aberdeen have made some solid additions this season and it can rightly be said that they have the second-best squad in the division following the arrivals of Barry Robson, Willo Flood, Calvin Zola and Nicky Weaver. Kilmarnock have signed two goalkeepers (but they can't play both at the same time). Yes, they have the reigning manager of the year coming in to take over from Kenny Shiels but there is only so much Allan Johnston will be able to achieve without the raw materials.
St Johnstone, meanwhile, have hit the ground running in the Europa League and take on an embattled Hearts - shorn of senior players and already facing a 15-point deficit. While penalties such as this are not insurmountable (see Dundee circa 2011), the whole season will act as a kind of sociological experiment given that Gary Locke's squad will be populated almost entirely by youngsters. Asking them to go to a buoyant St Johnstone on the first day of the season will act as staging post for the rest of the season and I fancy the task is beyond them.
Elsewhere, Inverness look exceptional value at home to St Mirren. Terry Butcher embarked on one of his now familiar signing sprees in England's lower reaches and didn't lose too many. Shopping in England's bargain basement is a tactic that has served Butcher well and there is every reason to believe that the Highlanders will be challenging for a European spot again this time around. St Mirren, meanwhile, have lost their Newcastle contingent from last season and look a weaker side as a result.
Finally, Hibernian's capitulation in the Europa League at home to Malmo reeked of a side that has lost confidence in manager Pat Fenlon. Motherwell, on the other hand, have no such identity crisis. Yes, they have a lost a few but they have also secured the return of James McFadden and added another former Scotland internationalist in the shape of Stephen McManus. Expect them to win with ease in the capital tomorrow.
THE BET
Two doubles made up of Motherwell (6/4)/Inverness (11/10) and Aberdeen (1/1)/St Johnstone (6/5) pay out at returns of 4.25/1 and 3.41/1 respectively. The one caveat is the sheer number of draws in Scottish football's top flight but then this a new league and all that. Isn't it?
SEASON'S TOTAL
Perhaps I should back Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen to finish second in every grand prix until the end of the season because that's where he seems have placed every time I've had money on him. But at least his failure to win in Hungary hasn't dented the coffers too much. Total: £131.86
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