Scottish Premiership: Familiarity & intrigue in season 2015-16

Celtic are aiming for a fifth straight title success

Ahead of a new campaign, echoes from the one just past continue to be heard.

By what distance will Celtic leave the rest of the teams behind in the league? Can Aberdeen mount a sustained and convincing title challenge? And who amongst the rest will be discarded as also-rans?

Yet the fortunes of Aberdeen, Hearts and Dundee United provide an interesting diversion. The Premiership plays out to familiar themes, but intrigue can still be found lurking in its midst.

Aberdeen seek to close gap

The expectation is of Celtic confirming, again, that no team can bridge the gap to their greater resources, and it is in Europe that the champions will be exposed to more gruelling challenges.

Under Derek McInnes, Aberdeen have become reliably strong, assertive and consistent.

Can Aberdeen get closer to Celtic this season?

The signing of Graeme Shinnie, the retention of Ryan Jack and Adam Rooney and the hope that Kenny McLean will recover his poise and decisiveness following his move to the club in January, all suggest the team could yet be more effective this campaign.

The players ought to be hardened to the mental challenges that come with their prominence.

Aberdeen had an excellent record against all the top-flight teams other than Celtic last season, but the squad should be better prepared for the expectation level that comes with being the team best equipped to at least pressurise the reigning champions.

Re-building at Tannadice

At Dundee United, the fascination is with the constant process of rejuvenation. Can a team shorn of its three best players - Gary Mackay-Steven, Stuart Armstrong and Nadir Ciftci, all of whom joined Celtic in 2015 - find the means to recover?

Rodney Sneijder is one of Jackie McNamara's summer signings at Dundee United

Jackie McNamara has to marshal diminishing funds and the brittle promise of youth.

Flaws need to be managed, too, since Rodney Sneijder joins the club from a period of effective exile in the Dutch second tier after initially breaking through at Ajax, and at 24 the midfielder needs to show he has the character and spirit to accompany decent technique and speed.

Hearts back with a bang?

The challenge for Hearts is to maintain their progress, having galloped so relentlessly to the Championship title last season that their rivals could only wilt in response.

The recruitment strategy has been agreed, since the new signings are all arguably better than those they have or will replace in the side, with only Gavin Reilly from Queen of the South being captured for his potential.

Hearts return to the Premiership after a year-long absence

Juwon Oshaniwa, in particularly, is a thoroughbred footballer and worth the drawn-out process of seeking a visa for the Nigerian left-back.

Battle at the bottom

More grimly, the wonder is which established sides will find themselves in a battle for survival? Finances remain tight across the division and many of the teams have had to struggle just to try to maintain their squads.

Even so, it is possible to assume improvements at most apart from Partick Thistle and Hamilton Academical.

The tendency is for teams at the top and at the bottom to be cut adrift from the rest as the season unfolds, and to that end this campaign is likely to have a familiar feel to it.

How the teams are shaping up