Celtic’s bold personnel moves on transfer deadline day were designed to haul the Parkhead club back into the title race. The signing that had everyone talking of course was that of Robbie Keane and it could only be viewed as a gamble, a short-term solution designed to help land the championship.

Now that Tony Mowbray’s men find themselves ten points behind Rangers with the same number of games played, it’s reasonable to wonder if the radical overhaul will be for naught in terms of silverware. Granted there will be commercial spin-offs to having a big name like Keane wear the hoops for a few months. Yet Rangers are going to have to come a cropper a few times, and Celtic might just have to win every SPL game between now and the end of the season. It’s difficult to envisage.

As some of you will know, this commentator has been granted plenty of thinking time this season, much of it at 37,000 feet. En route from Scotland to the United States, after covering ESPN’s Matchday Live from Tannadice, I find myself pondering what’s next for Dundee United’s excellent manager Craig Levein.

Not without good reason, Levein is the favourite to land the vacant Scotland post. United’s remarkable 2-1 win over Celtic on Sunday certainly did plenty to bolster the argument that the 45-year-old - who played 16 times for his country - is the ideal man to succeed George Burley.

One of the Scottish game’s deeper thinkers, Levein has something all the top managers have in abundance: natural authority. Not a man to suffer fools gladly, you had better be on your game when working with the United boss, and that applies to us in the media as much as it does to players wearing tangerine.

His work since 2006 with Dundee United might appear solid, rather than spectacular, but the evidence of significant improvement is undeniable. It’s all the more laudable when you consider that no player on the club’s books makes more than £2,000 a week.

Levein has the knack of getting the very best out of players who are far from superstars. As Sunday proved with the astute use of substitutes Jon Daly, David Goodwillie and Danny Swanson, he has the ability to make positive, match-altering decisions. These are important qualities the next Scotland manager must possess.

So you might expect me to be a strong advocate of Craig Levein for the national side, and I have to say he does appear to be the outstanding candidate. But there’s part of me that hopes he remains on Tayside to build on the blocks already put in place.

During the summer, Levein thought outside the box and tore the club’s old youth system asunder, appointing the innovative Ian Cathro and Brian Grant and placing the emphasis firmly on players’ technique. Cathro has no prior experience with an SPL club but his radical methods struck a chord with the manager.

I made the point on-air before kick-off on Sunday that if one team is to push Rangers and Celtic this term, Dundee United might just be that team. A case can be made for Hibernian too, but United appear to have a little bit more tactical flexibility, again a tribute to Craig Levein.

No one can get inside his mind, and approaches haven’t been made to him or any other potential Scotland manager, but this much is clear: Levein is the hottest coaching property in the Scottish game at the moment. He has unfinished business south of the border too, having found himself in charge of Leicester City at a less than opportune time.

Does Craig Levein covet the Scotland job? Will he stay the course with Dundee United and finish the job he has started? Are both the Scotland and Dundee United positions, in his way of thinking, a stepping stone to English football?

Deep down, I’m guessing he’s rather enjoying being the king of the managerial castle in Scotland at the moment. It’s never a bad thing to be wanted in any walk of life. Even if - when all is said and down - Levein remains at Tannadice, he’ll still be a manager going places.

It’s time for everyone connected with Scottish football to get on with the business of improving our game north of the border. I write this in the immediate aftermath of the Premier League’s decision to reject a proposal arguing for future involvement by the Old Firm in a new and expanded form of England’s top flight structure.

Perhaps now we can all forget about EPL 2, North Atlantic leagues and escape hatches generally. Rangers and Celtic are in Scotland to stay, and they would be doing themselves and all the other SPL clubs a favour, if they start talking up and empowering the domestic league.

The 12 SPL chairmen rarely dance to the same tune, but when it comes to the future of the top division, not one of them should be off key. They are all in this together, and it’s time everyone got around the table and agreed on a radical plan to serve the interests of Scottish football as a whole. If that means throwing out the current 38-match fixture list, with a split after 33 games, so be it. Likewise, if a relegation play-off would make for a more compelling end to the season, put it in. This is no time for beating about the bush.

No one can deny that this is a difficult period for the Old Firm clubs on the financial front. Yet it’s vital that they view their current off-pitch travails in the context of the league as a whole.

For many years, the top clubs in Italy and Spain have been sending their younger players on loan to other clubs in their own leagues. That a Real Madrid player might prosper wearing the colours of Getafe is deemed beneficial to that particular youngster’s development. A case in point is Esteban Granero, now back at the parent club after a highly successful loan period with Getafe.

Many of us in Scotland have been salivating at the prospect of a title race involving more than just two teams. Hibernian and Dundee United have both demonstrated in the early part of the campaign that they have the capacity to push Rangers and Celtic. It’s incumbent upon all the decision makers to find a way of making this the norm, rather than a once-in-a-decade phenomenon – and that includes the two established powers.

As I’ve argued in previous blogs, the only way forward for Scottish football is to place a strong emphasis on youth. We might all have to get used to a tumbling co-efficient for a while, but realistically there is little choice, and there will be benefits in the long run.

Let me start with the good news today. The most recent round of SPL fixtures was the most compelling so far this season. Sadly, the one match that didn’t deliver was the Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle. After all, some of us had journeyed quite a distance to see it unfold!

We, on ESPN, gave the Hearts v Hibernian contest the requisite big build-up but it was a drab affair with little to say for itself. Such a shame really as the day itself in one of Europe’s great capitals was glorious, while Armistice weekend was marked with taste and dignity.

Hibs, the form team going in, were never able to impose their preferred slick passing game on a Hearts team better known for robust obduracy. That John Hughes lost Merouane Zemmama to injury and had to leave Derek Riordan on the bench for the same reason, meant a big shift in approach. Colin Nish an old-fashioned aerial centre forward has his uses, but you always feel there’s a tendency to play too many high balls in his direction when the big man is named in the side. Nish also needs someone to play off and there was no one fulfilling this important role.

Abdessalam Benjelloun, who endured a forgettable afternoon was caught in the no man’s land area between midfield and attack. Anthony Stokes was similarly marginalised in a wide position on the left. Hibs simply didn’t spark into life until the gifted Riordan came on midway through the second half. Suddenly the Hearts defenders, Jose Goncalves and Ismael Bouzid who had been strolling through the game had something to think about.

Hearts held dominion over their city rivals for much of the game but lacked a cutting edge. It has been a problem for the men in maroon all season and there is no panacea in sight. The bulky Christian Nade can hold the ball up well enough, but hasn’t scored for nine months in the SPL and all clubs must demand more from their first choice centre-forward.

Hibs came close to scoring when David Wotherspoon’s shot took a slight deflection off the head of Nish, yet somehow Janos Balogh changed direction to make one of the saves of the SPL season. Hearts had a last gasp shout for a penalty rightly turned down when substitute Jamie Mole went down but an award would have been very harsh.

Conclusions from the first Edinburgh derby of the campaign? Hearts will continue to struggle unless Csaba Laszlo is allowed to sign a finisher in January and preferably someone with a bit of creative ability in midfield. They are woefully short in both areas.

Saturday was proof that Hibernian don’t have the capacity to play swashbuckling football every week. For verve and adventure they are heavily reliant on the manager’s ‘maverick four’ (Riordan, Stokes, Zemmama and Benjelloun.) When one member of that quarter is out, they’re not quite the same.

Every other match on Saturday and Sunday provided the sort of entertainment Scottish fans have been craving. The 2-2 draw in the Lanarkshire derby between Hamilton and Motherwell was incident packed and engrossing. Fair play to the Accies for earning a point despite being reduced to ten men for most of the match.

Sunday’s 3-3 draw at The Falkirk Stadium must go down as one of the best SPL spectacles in many a year. Celtic fans probably thought they would stroll to victory against the bottom club, but Eddie May’s young charges were up for it and provided a perfect example of how the less fashionable clubs might have a go at the Old Firm as winter takes hold.

Meanwhile, I remain confident that the next Edinburgh derby on January 3 will have considerably more substance.

It's an oft stated belief that there are no longer any promising youngsters coming through the ranks of Scottish football clubs. The word "promising" is the key point in that last sentence. I say that because young players are everywhere no matter where you watch your matches in the SPL.

In the past few weeks, while preparing for live games on ESPN, I've looked at squad lists choc-full of players in the early years of their football development. Part of that of course has to do with the much criticised SPL under-21 rule. In a matchday squad of eighteen players, three must be under-21.

The SPL's chief executive Neil Doncaster has been quick to acknowledge that there are differences of opinion amongst the clubs when it comes to this issue. While introduced with the best of intentions, it has had the effect of promoting young players before they're truly ready for the top flight. Many clubs use the three under-21 slots ostensibly as bench fillers.

Anyone covering Scottish football on a regular basis naturally wants to see a harvest of emerging players who have something to offer the SPL and ultimately the Scottish national team. The truth is, we often end up giving star billing to footballers who are at best ordinary.

However it surely stands to reason that with more players than ever being given a chance at a very young age, one or two might just represent the real thing. In recent weeks, I've seen impressive performances from Murray Davidson at St. Johnstone, David Wotherspoon at Hibs and Fraser Fyvie, who is tasked with dominating in midfield for Aberdeen at the age of 16.

Such players usually benefit from experience around them though. On Sunday, I watched Hamilton's 17-year-old Jordan Kirkpatrick grow in confidence once the seasoned Guillaume Beuezelin came on to supply him with ammunition against Celtic.

Maybe we simply have to show a bit of patience. In the mid-nineties, an entire generation was damaged by the effects of the Bosman ruling.

It became more convenient for clubs to sign quick-fix players from overseas for no transfer fee, than to invest in youth.

The likes of Fyvie and Kirkpatrick will get the chance to prove themselves in these financially constrained times. It's up to them to seize it.

I’ve watched a couple of ragged 0-0 draws in the Scottish Premier League in the past week. The Falkirk v Aberdeen stalemate lacked all-round quality but, if anything, Saturday’s meeting of Kilmarnock and Rangers was an even poorer spectacle. I would be tempted to say the Killie pie was game’s tastiest offering but they had all been gobbled up by the time I made my way down from the commentary gantry.

Referee Steve Conroy is getting much of the blame for the fact that the Rugby Park tussle failed to hit the high notes. Fair enough, he booked eleven players and sent off two (plus Rangers manager Walter Smith) and many have argued he was hasty in reaching for his pocket in most instances.

I’ve spent the last few seasons with Spanish football as my commentating bread and butter. I can assure you, most of the cards issued by Mr. Conroy would also have been cautions and orderings-off in the Primera. The trouble is, in Scotland we prefer to let certain things go, in the name of the ‘flow of the game.’

Obviously I’m not a referee myself and I have great admiration for the men who take on this difficult job. It seems to me, the officials are caught in something of a quandary between managing the game as they see fit, and at the same time, pleasing the assessors watching in the main stand.

Some Rangers fans believe the first booking handed out to Pedro Mendes (he was later given his marching orders) was on the soft side. In the old days, they point out, he might have been spoken to and warned before the card game started. To run this argument to its logical conclusion, a referee runs the risk of spoiling a game by taking the names of too many players and eventually being forced as a matter of consistency, to bring out the red card.

But was Conroy really to blame for the inadequate passing, the complete lack of subtlety and general huffing and puffing we witnessed in East Ayrshire? I’m not so sure. In fact, a case can be made that the decision to book Pedro Mendes for a second time actually put a bit of life into a match that was slowly dyng on its feet.

Sometimes, players just don’t deliver and Rangers were well below their best on Saturday, lacking the imagination and verve they displayed in Stuttgart in the Champions League on Wednesday. It’s difficult to be as critical of a Kilmarnock side who had gone 27 competitive games without beating Rangers at home, a run dating back more than fifteen years. Their priority was always going to be keeping it tight and making sure the champions didn’t cut them open.

Steve Conroy may have been over-zealous with a few of his cards, but it seems churlish to say it’s the referee’s fault when so many players underperform.

These days you often hear that modern sophisticated television coverage puts added pressure on referees. Multiple slow motion replays from various different angles, it is argued, serve only to highlight the shortcomings of officials.

On Sunday at Easter Road, it worked the other way around. During our live ESPN broadcast of Hibs' home game against Celtic, we showed several replays of the now infamous Aiden McGeady sending-off incident.

The first couple of retrospective views gave the impression that there was perhaps clumsy contact by Paul Hanlon. But the telling angle, which showed what referee Dougie McDonald saw, made it clear that McGeady had indeed gone to ground without any help from the young Hibernian left-back.

It was a courageous decision by one of Scotland's top whistlers to hand the Republic of Ireland international his second yellow card of the day, but our pictures proved that it was, under the circumstances, absolutely the correct one.

Now with the naked eye, it appeared to most people, myself included, that Hanlon had caught McGeady and was about to go into the book himself. Certainly that was the opinion of assistant referee Gary Sweeney, whose flag indicated a free-kick to Celtic.

The entire matter shows just how hard a referee's job is. In this case, McDonald should be congratulated. However, can you imagine if there had been say, just a single camera showing highlights of the Sunday match, or no camera at all? There's every chance the referee would have been roundly criticised for reaching a bizarre conclusion.

Most of us will applaud the directive aimed at stamping out simulation. Occasionally, refs will wrongly book a player for diving, but we must perhaps accept such collateral damage in the name of clamping down on those who seek to con the officials.

As Sunday's incident demonstrated, it's not always easy to differentiate between the legitimate and the illegal. Not all referees are as strong or as able as Dougie McDonald.

At least the message has been sent out that cheating will not be tolerated in the SPL. Let's hope everyone takes note in the weeks and months ahead.

The 12 teams in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League all have their own priorities. For Falkirk this season, it's a matter of preserving their top flight status: nothing more, nothing less.

A glance at the table after 2 games shows the Bairns have yet to pick up a point, and worryingly have conceded 7 goals. Yet there's no need to press the panic button. In Rangers and Hibernian, Eddie May's charges have faced a couple of stern opponents to begin the season. Dundee United away on Saturday will be no picnic either.

Having been on site at a sun-kissed Falkirk Stadium for our live ESPN coverage of the 3-1 defeat suffered at the hands of old boss Yogi Hughes and his Hibs team, I was fascinated to learn more about the building blocks in place at the Stirlingshire club.

May and managing director George Craig told me before Saturday's match that they're rightly proud of the fact that 16 members of the current first team squad have come through their own academy.

Scottish clubs have traditionally employed managers who supervised all aspects of the clubs from dealing with agents and the highest paid players on the staff, to making sure that the janitors and cleaners are doing their jobs.

The likeable May, previously director of the aforementioned youth academy, has ascended to the role of "head coach". In other words, his sole responsibility is to look after the first team, with assistance from former Falkirk and Scotland defender Steven Pressley and the highly respected Alex Smith.

In the innovative Ross Wilson, Falkirk have a new man in charge of football development. In Spain or Germany, Wilson would likely be described as "sporting director" but you get the point that his job is distinct from that of May. There's a strong element of the continental model about what the Bairns are doing.

They are helped greatly by an association with Stirling University, just a few miles up the road. The training facilities there are the envy of many a club in Scotland. Penning this blog en route to the USA makes me wonder if we might in the future see young, education conscious American players enticed by the prospect of combining a Scottish degree with the possibility of an SPL experience. Stranger things have happened!

Falkirk are a club hell bent on giving up and comers a chance. If you remove 35 year-old Jackie McNamara and 28 year-old Burton O'Brien from Saturday's starting eleven, you find an average age of 21.5.

They have already produced a Scotland player in club captain Darren Barr and it will be interesting to follow the development of Scott Arfield, Tam Scobbie and Saturday's scorer, Ryan Flynn, as the season progresses.

The harsh reality for the Bairns is that some of their own "bairns" (Scottish word for youngsters for those of you not from Scotland!) need to be sold on for the system to work. Arfield has been linked with a number of clubs south of the border, and it's surely a case of when, rather than if, Falkirk will have to let go.

The trim stadium now has a new south stand and I'm looking forward to returning for the visit of Aberdeen, when we broadcast ESPN matchnight live on Monday, 14 September.

At a time when Scottish football desperately needs a harvest of new homegrown football talent, there would be no harm in others examining the Falkirk way.

As some of you know, the next nine months will be rather akin to entering the tardis for this commentator. It's a great thrill and and a tremendous honour to be back broadcasting Scottish football. Craig Burley, Darrell Currie and I certainly had a cracker to cover in our first ESPN game from the Clydesdale Bank Premier League at Tannadice Park.

I must admit to having smiled to myself when informed that Tannadice was the venue for the opening fixture. As a young broadcaster in the Eighties, I spent many a happy afternoon and evening commentating on Dundee United as they bucked the trends of the time under the shrewd management of Jim McLean.

In a strange sort of way, as walked along Tannadice Street on Monday night for the first time in quite a while, I half expected McLean to slide out from his old office and ask me to show him my press pass.

These days of course, Craig Levein is the United boss and I very much enjoyed the pre-match chat we had with him before the meeting with his old club, Hearts. Levein is one of the game's deep thinkers and he has put together a squad that must have an excellent chance of finishing third in this season's Scottish Premier League.

The star of the Monday show was of course Danny Cadamarteri. Clearly very motivated to make an impact on Tayside, Cadamarteri's movement and general know-how gave a makeshift Hearts back four plenty to think about. That he was named man of the match was entirely justified and not just on the strength of an impressive two goal contribution.

You might not immediately think of Cadamarteri as the ideal striking partner for young David Goodwillie, but Levein has no other options at present with last season's top scorer, Fran Sandaza and Jon Daly out injured. Goodwillie, scorer of five goals in an undefeated pre-season, also put in a tremendous shift, leading us to wonder if this might be his time to make a significant climb up the footballing ladder.

Csaba Laszlo and Werner Burger, the Hearts managerial duo, were also good enough to spend a couple of minutes giving me their thoughts before the game. Laszlo and Burger studied for their coaching licence together and view football very much through the same prism.

You have to feel a bit for Hearts as this is no ordinary week. Three games in six days – two away from home, one tester in Europe and the small matter of defending SPL champions Rangers at home. That's no bargain.

Apart from the over-exuberant performance of captain Michael Stewart, who was rightly sent off, there were many plus points for Laszlo's team. They were in the game for long spells and kept plugging away even after being reduced to ten men early in the second half.

It's clear though, that a proven goalscorer remains the biggest signing priority for Csaba Laszlo. Christian Nade is an effective enough leader of the line, but by no means a prolific finisher.

As for Tannadice itself, it hasn't changed much over the years and for me that's reassuring. Tight and compact, it was always one of my favourite grounds. Unfortunately, amid the scrambling to get ready for our first broadcast of the season, I didn't have time to sample any Tayside pies.

I'll just have to save that culinary treat for my next visit.