Premiership preview

Craig Stewart takes a look at the 12 clubs in the Scottish Premiership ahead of this weekend’s big kick-off.

Celtic are bidding to retain the title while Dundee and Hamilton Accies are looking forward to life back in the top flight.

Aberdeen
Manager Derek McInnes will be determined that his men stay strong for the entire campaign this time out as, despite this first trophy in success in 19 years, Aberdeen’s season finished with only two wins in their last 10 league and cup games.
 
The Scottish League Cup holders are already one month into this campaign, with wins in Europe against Daugava Riga and FC Groningen, but Spanish giants Real Sociedad ended their Euro run on Thursday night.

Shay Logan has returned and Scotland striker David Goodwillie has been added after a parting of the ways with Blackburn Rovers. Aberdeen will be hoping that Pittodrie brings out the best in the former Dundee United star.

Celtic
Celtic’s season has got off to a dramatic start after they were reinstated in the Champions League and they begin their Premiership campaign at St Johnstone on Wednesday. Celtic only lost one league game last season and Fraser Forster’s goal remained intact for 1,256 minutes at one stage. Few people would be of a mind that Ronny Deila’s side will not be solid champions again come May.

As well as boss Neil Lennon departing, striker Georgios Samaras has also left, with Norwegian hit-man Jo Inge Berget added to boost the forward line on loan from Cardiff. Former Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon has also been signed after a two-year break in his career caused by injury.

Dundee
Paul Hartley has changed things around after his side secured the Championship title back in May with 12 new recruits coming on board.

There is excitement in the air for the Dark Blues and, while Hartley is well known for keeping everyone’s feet on the ground, he will welcome that feeling staying around throughout next season. It all starts with a home game against Kilmarnock when Dundee will be presented with the Championship flag.

Dundee United 
United sold two of the rising stars of the Scottish game during the summer when Ryan Gauld headed for Sporting Lisbon and Hull City landed Andrew Robertson.

Manager Jackie McNamara has recruited youngsters who know the SPFL in Callum Morris, Charlie Telfer and Blair Spittal, as well as other new recruits in Mario Bilate, Jaroslaw Fojut, Conor Townsend and Michal Szromnik in a bid to keep the progress at Tannadice going. While United earned plenty of plaudits last season, silverware eluded them and McNamara will be looking to put that right this time out.

Hamilton Accies
Accies player/ boss Alex Neil has taken a different approach to fellow promoted side Dundee by only bringing in a few players – two of them already well known to the fans at New Douglas Park.

Danny Redmond and Dougie Imrie have both joined up for second spells at Accies, who are looking to build on their play-off success against Hibernian.

Hamilton played nice football last season and they have experience throughout their team, as well as the promise of youth. Keep an eye out for the emergence of Kieran MacDonald who was a star at Clyde last season and earned a move to full-time football at New Douglas Park.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle
There has been very little transfer activity either in or out this summer as manager John Hughes takes his side for the first time in pre-season. Former Hibs youngster Lewis Horner looks set to sign for the Highlanders and he could feature as the only new face against Hamilton this weekend.

Caley Thistle started last season on fire and led the table early on under Terry Butcher and went on to reach the League Cup final, losing on penalties to Aberdeen. Securing a European place would represent tangible progress for Hughes and his side and, with goal-grabber Billy McKay still on board, they have a chance.

Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock manager Allan Johnston has been reunited with his former Hearts team-mate Gary Locke at Rugby Park, with the former Tynecastle manager joining the Ayrshire club as ‘Magic’s’ assistant.

Lee Miller and Josh Magennis have been recruited to provide goals in the absence of Kris Boyd who did so much last season to ensure Kilmarnock avoided the relegation play-offs, with Alexei Eremenko brought back for another spell at the club. How well that trio do in finding the net will determine how successful Kilmarnock will be this season.

Motherwell
Motherwell claimed second place with the last kick of the ball on the last day of the season with a 1-0 win at Aberdeen. That was a tremendous achievement by manager Stuart McCall. Summer 2014 has seen another change around in players with Shaun Hutchinson, James McFadden and Henri Anier all moving on from Fir Park.

McCall will need to rebuild again and his side will also need to get over the disappointment of going out of Europe to Icelandic side Stjarnan last month. Josh Law has been brought in from England and, with McCall’s eye for talent, do not be surprised if he plays a significant part in Motherwell’s season.

Partick Thistle
Thistle survived at the first time of asking last season but one thing they have to do in this campaign is to turn Firhill into a stronghold after picking up just two home wins last season.

Manager Alan Archibald has brought in the experience of Abdul Osman and Ryan Stevenson to help his side but full-back Aaron Taylor-Sinclair has headed for Wigan and he tops a list of 12 departures from the club. If Thistle stay strong at home they can continue as a Premiership side.

Ross County
Ross County rebuilt last season and manager Derek Adams rebuilt again come January when things were not going as smoothly as they could. The Dingwall men have rebuilt again this summer with 11 players in and 11 players out, with assistant manager Neale Cooper also leaving.

Filip Kiss has been brought back for a second spell on loan from Cardiff and you can expect the midfielder to have a significant influence on County’s season.

St Johnstone
Scottish Cup holders St Johnstone have added Yeovil striker Adam Morgan to the squad that saw off Dundee United at Parkhead and they face a real battle to keep hold of striker Stevie May, who seems set for a move to Yorkshire.

Nigel Hasselbaink, Paddy Cregg, Tim Clancy, and James Dunne have all left McDiarmid Park and Saints’ season could well be determined by the quantity and quality of any replacements.

The Perth side have started their season already, with a Europa League run that brought success against Luzern but disappointment against Spartak Trnava. As well as winning the Scottish Cup, Tommy Wright secured a top-six place and Saints fans would probably settle for a similar finish this time out.

St Mirren
The Paisley side opted to go into the new season with a new management team with Danny Lennon leaving at the end of his contract and his assistant Tommy Craig taking on the position.

One of Craig’s objectives will be to end a run of eight successive seasons of bottom half finishes and be in the top half of the split for the first time in the club’s history.

To help Craig achieve this he has recruited six new players, including on-loan Manchester City youngster Ellis Plummer. Ten players with first-team experience have left, including veteran Eric Djemba-Djemba and the long-serving David Van Zanten.