“The split four” – the SPL has just massively changed – and we’re loving it

Following an easy street win over Aberdeen, Rangers closed the gap to Celtic to a single point following Neil Lennon men’s big slip up at Easter Road.

It’s evident this Celtic side is there for the taking this season, and more on that later, but for now we have to laugh at the rampant decline of last season’s split.

Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts and Kilmarnock are all in quite a desperate place this season, with absolutely horrible form blighting their start to the campaign, and the likes of Motherwell, Ross County and even Livingston are proudly filling up the top of the table in their place.

Meanwhile Rangers, after only seven matches, soar five points clear of nearest rivals Motherwell (yes, Motherwell) who sit alone in third.

How on earth have four of the top six from last season become this staggeringly awful in just one summer?

Aberdeen got complacent, and Derek McInnes got rusty – he has nowhere to take that club and has no motivation either.

Killie lost Steve Clarke – that one is fairly explanatory.

Hearts got stale and keep wanting to trust their bang-average manager Craig Levein, despite a mediocre campaign last term.

And Hibernian lost Neil Lennon – he and Alan Stubbs had made the best Hibs there had been in decades, whether or not we liked them – and Paul Heckingbottom has had a mare there.

So now we see a bit of a new order in the SPL, and it’s beginning to look a lot like it used to – Rangers and Celtic miles in front of a bunch of mediocre SPL sides, sides who could have taken advantage of Rangers’ absence then weaknesses in previous seasons, but cut their noses off to spite their face instead.

We can’t say we totally hate the shape of the SPL table right now.

What goes around…