2014/15 was, believe it or not, the eighth season of Narey's Toepoker. Occasionally I have a wee look back at some of the stuff I wrote back in 2007, and cringe. Turns out my prediction that Alex McLeish would take Scotland to the 2010 World Cup was wrong on pretty much every level. And that's not the silliest thing I wrote, not by a long shot.
The last year has been more special than any other; not just on a personal level - I'll be very lucky if Caley Thistle win the Scottish Cup again in my lifetime - but because of how things have continued to develop on the site. We got into a nice rhythm last season, with most weeks marked by a Monday 'talking points' blog to discuss the weekend's Premiership action, and a stand-alone article a few days later.
The reason why things were so much better was because of the assistance of others. Iain Meredith and Andrew Sutherland, friends from so long ago that they remember what I was like when I had hair (and, depressingly, they can still recall the time I hit the post from a yard out during football trials as a twelve year old), were dopey enough to agree to chip in with a few paragraphs every Monday.
With Andrew following ICT pretty much everywhere, this was invaluable. Iain seemed cursed to be stuck with the dullest game of the week (even when he picked it in advance), but could still be relied on to send me a couple of hundred words in a Google Docs file every Monday morning, which I would then spent half an hour reformatting to make it work in this crappy old Blogger software. Just as crucially, he roped in diehard Dons fan Martin Ingram to help out too. I've never met Martin, but his love of Aberdeen is matched only by a level of wit and self-parody that is just terrific.
Add in the odd guest article from each of them - Martin's end of season rant about Gordon Strachan's refusal to pick Premiership players was one of our most popular of the whole year, and Dundee United fan Peter Clark just about matched it with a great guest piece bemoaning the reluctance of youngsters to follow Ryan Gauld's path abroad - and, to be honest, I felt really lucky. It was a lot of fun.
So what will 2015/16 bring?
A change of circumstances, for a start. Those close to me know that, come August, I will have a whole new set of responsibilities to deal with. It may mean rather less of Narey's Toepoker, unless I find that blogging is as good as anything else to pass the time when it's 3am and a screaming wean is preventing sleep.
We shall see. But I'm not really able to think much beyond that point just now. The next few weeks will be spent penning season previews for Scotland's top flight clubs, which have generally been well received (apart from last season's Partick Thistle one, which suggested that Gabriel Piccolo would start at centre-back for them). After that, who knows.
I'm desperate to keep this going, though. The quality of coverage of Scottish football by the mainstream media - with a few exceptions - remains as dreadful as ever - the top story on the BBC's Scottish football page today is that Nadir Ciftci set up a goal in a friendly. Whilst my blogging doesn't hold a candle to some of the greats that are out there - Tom Hall at the Scottish Football Blog, the guys at The Terrace, John Maxwell and Craig Telfer of Tell Him He's Pele, 'Steeplejack' of Gable End Graffiti fame - I reckon that the more of us that are doing this, the better.
What I would love is to get more folk involved. I might technically be 'editor', but I don't demand that everything published here resonates with my own views. Along as it is interesting, and eloquent, and not especially libellous, I'd love to read it and put it up, along with a self-deprecating and sarcastic bio about the author.
Alternatively, if anyone out there would like to contribute to Talking Points on a Monday, that'd be awesome. Every contribution triggers an IOU for a future pint; Andrew, Iain and Martin are going to get very, very drunk when they next see me in the pub, and it's going to cost me a fortune.
So if you do want to join in, drop me a line - the best way is either through the comments bit, or a wee message on Twitter. Trust me, I'll see it.
There are some certainties for the season ahead; Celtic will win the league; Hibs won't win the cup; at least one Scottish club will make an arse of themselves in Europe (thank you very much, St. Johnstone). As for everything else, we'll just have to wait and see.
Regards,
Lawrie
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