Hugh Keevins: Get Out of The Way, I'm Watching The Match!

A sense of anticipation.

It's been a long time since that feeling has been experienced at domestic and international level where Scottish football's been concerned.

And the stirring of almost forgotten emotions might even extend to Europe now that Celtic have been forced into realising that their Europa League group threatened embarrassment without significant sums being spent on team refurbishment in the wake of the misadventure in Malmo.

Sell big, buy big appears to be the new dynamic at Celtic Park as Virgil van Dijk prepares to swop Glasgow for Southampton and around £4m is put out on Jozo Simunovic from Dinamo Zagreb as his defensive replacement.

Could it be that principal shareholder Dermot Desmond, a spectator in Sweden as Celtic's Champions League campaign ended in Kami-kaze-style elimination, has got the message ?

The fans are restless and the sound of their greatest rivals gathering ever increasing momentum inside Ibrox and everywhere else they play has become a high pitched whine in the ears of the supporters who daubed a caustic message of criticism on to a banner unfurled before the game against St. Johnstone on Saturday.

And when the paint brushes come out at Celtic Park it's always time to fix the roof while the sun shines and before supporter disquiet turns from a shower to a torrent of criticism.

Sell big, buy big appears to be the new dynamic as Virgil van Dijk prepares to swop Glasgow for Southampton and Jozo Simunovic arrives from Dinamo Zagreb as his £5.5m replacement.

Now the Group A matches against Ajax, Fenerbahce and Molde look a little less intimidating if no less demanding.

And if Celtic can field a defensive quartet which comprises two players brought from Manchester United, new signing Tyler Blackett and Saidy Janko, as well as one from Manchester City, Dedryck Boyata, along with Simunovic when they go to Pittodrie then they'll be better prepared for what will be psychological warfare as well as physical combat.

Derek McInnes' side lost all four league games to Celtic last season and were able to wave goodbye to a proper title challenge as a consequence.

But if they could beat Ronny Deila's team this time out and replace them at the top of the league table then we could have something very interesting on our hands.

However, you'll need to keep your thoughts on that matter to yourself for the next couple of weeks because attention now transfers, and rightly so, to the national team.

There was a time when the perennial under achievers in dark blue were seen as a distraction from more meaningful club football, providing matches which brought the threat of injury and denied club bosses time with their players on the training pitch.

But Gordon Strachan's effect on Scotland has been such that people genuinely care what happens when his side play their European Championship qualifier with georgia in Tbilisi on Friday night.

Hampden is already sold out for the game after that, against Germany, on Monday night and the whole thing has the nostalgic feel of better days when the national side and its public were indivisible.

But whatever happens over the course of the next two matches it can't be Willie Collum's fault, or that of any other Scottish match official apparently drawn from a poisoned well of candidates.

The vastly experienced Collum was lambasted for his performance at Hamilton on Saturday by Hearts' manager Robbiue Nielson.

Andrew Dallas, on the other hand, was accused of being too young and promoted beyond his station by the reigning Manager of the Year, Inverness Caley Thistle's John Hughes, at the weekend.

Even Mark Warburton dropped his diplomatic guard for a change and had a go at the Fourth Official, Crawford Allan, for his part in the red card shown to Queen of the South's Derek Lyle at Dumfries on Sunday.

Hopefully there'll be an amnesty and the SFA won't feel the need for mass punishments in the wake of those incidents.

Just because the governing body would rather their referees take a vow of silence it doesn't mean to say that freedom of speech should be outlawed in a democratic society.

Derek McInnes said on Saturday after his side's win at Partick Thistle that Celtic would want to go to Pittodrie on September 12 and give his team a slap to put them in their place.

What should the SFA do with him now, charge Derek with incitement to riot ?

The season's warming up and providing no end of topics on and off the field.

Sit down and let us get on with it. We're all big boys and we can argue while getting on with the game at the same time.