GETTING BETTER OF BOOKIES WAS ALL IN MY MIND

I WISH I'd backed my hunch when instinct urged me to get down to the bookies late last July.

Okay, Celtic had just been battered in Bratislava and their European campaign was over almost before it had begun.

Plus they'd shipped four goals at Motherwell, only rescuing a point with Craig Beattie's late equaliser.

But I had a feeling that despite the nightmare opening to Gordon Strachan's Scottish management career Celtic would take the title with a winning margin of between 16 and 18 points.

I was also pretty sure Hearts would split the Old Firm in the SPL, using four different managers and around 35 players.

The third leg of the treble wager I didn't place was based on a strong suggestion in my subconscious that a Second Division side would reach yesterday's Tennent's Scottish Cup Final.

Alright, I've gone too far with that one - But those reflections serve up plenty of evidence to prove the newly ended campaign has been impossible to predict.

Fantasy

Two of the top stories of the season were wrapped into one at Hampden yesterday as Vladimir Romanov and Brooks Mileson proved football dreams can be bought.

Gretna's ascent from no man's land to the UEFA Cup is the switching of a fairytale from fantasy to reality.

I know I've mentioned my, ahem, starring role in that cinematic masterpiece A Shot At Glory before but Gretna's march to the final bears a striking resemblance to little Kilnockie's big screen giant-killing escapades.

By the way, if you missed that movie classic also featuring Robert Duvall (below) during its limited release it is still available on cut-price DVD from all good video stores. Or bargain bins.

There's been lots of tut-tutting about the way Romanov has gone about his business at Tynecastle.

The revolving door at the manager's office has rarely stopped spinning.

George Burley was axed in October despite an unbeaten record and his team top of the SPL.

Graham Rix was given slightly longer, sacked after four and a half months with Hearts still on course for a Scottish Cup and Champions League double.

Coach John McGlynn had another impressive cameo to perform between Burley and Rix and nowValdas Ivanauskas has emerged from the shadows of the dug-out to make his play for the hotseat.

Former Hearts head coach Craig Levein said fairly forcibly on telly last Sunday he wanted happy chappie Ivanauskas to be given the job full time.

That's based on the theory only a coach who

understands Romanov's Eastern European football culture, in which the owner has a very un-British control over team affairs, can work at Hearts these days.

The big disappointment at Tynecastle this season which they'll look to put right over the summer was letting Celtic romp to the title.

Hearts still feel sore about New Year's Day and with some justification.

The sending off of Takis Fyssas was wrong and it was from his vacated left-back area that Celtic won the game with goals stemming from two free-kicks.

I'm sure Celtic would still have clinched the title but I'm equally convinced we'd have had a tighter run-in.

The Hoops were best of the bunch and the fans who chanted Strachan's name in derogatory fashion early in the season were singing his praises by the end.

Maciej Zurawski and Mark Wilson were my pick of Strachan's signings - Roy Keane only played 10 games.

Strachan got a good response from existing stars like Stilian Petrov, Neil Lennon and John Hartson.

But it was the remarkable rehabilitation of seemingly expendable fringe men like Shaun Maloney and Stephen McManus that is the greatest credit to the wee man.

Predictable

One was Players' Player of the Year, both were picked for Scotland's Kirin Cup squad before Celtic pulled them out.

Rangers weren't exactly predictable either. Who would have thought the defending champions would finish 18 points off the pace?

Yet in the midst of their dismal domestic campaign Gers became the first Scottish side to advance beyond the initial group stages of the Champions League.

Then there's Kilmarnock. A popular forecast that they'd be in habiting the drop zone turned out to be ridiculous and they finished only a point off fourth place.

Expectations of a Dundee United revival have been put on hold for at least another season.

The big earners proved to be a big disappointment and only goal difference stopped them slumping to second bottom.

So what are we expecting when it's back down to business in a couple of months' time? To be honest I haven't a scooby.

Taken from the Sunday Mail