Celtic or Rangers for the title? SunSport writers' 2025/26 predictions including relegation, Player of Year & top scorer
CRYSTAL BALL Celtic or Rangers for the title? SunSport writers' 2025/26 predictions including relegation, Player of Year & top scorer
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
THE new Premiership season is almost upon us.
This weekend we will see all 12 Premiership teams return to league action following the summer break with six clashes across three days - Saturday to Monday.
Sign up for Scottish Sun
newsletter
Sign up
5
Brendan Rodgers lifting the title with his Celtic players in May
Credit: PA
5
But can Russell Martin clinch it in his first season?
Credit: Willie Vass
It's full circle for holders Celtic as they play their first competitive fixture on Sunday's flag day against St Mirren - after facing Stephen Robinson's on trophy day in May.
Rangers, on the other hand, take on Motherwell at Fir Park a day earlier on Saturday with an aim to take top spot in the league on opening weekend - and stay there when the season ends.
SunSport's reporters have put their reputations on the line and have predicted who will come out on top come May - and who will face the drop.
They've also revealed which players they have their eyes on to be named Player of the Year at the end of the season, as well as finish top goal-scorer.
Here's what they had to say.
Robert Grieve
Premiership:
1, Celtic
2, Rangers
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Motherwell
Bottom of Premiership: Livingston
Championship winners: Partick Thistle
League One winners: Inverness Caley Thistle
League Two winners: East Kilbride
Player of the Year: Benjamin Nygren
Premiership top goalscorer: Daizen Maeda
Bill Leckie
Premiership:
1, Celtic
2, Rangers
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Motherwell
Bottom of Premiership: Livingston
Championship winners: St Johnstone
League One winners: Alloa Athletic
League Two winners: East Kilbride
Player of the Year: Arne Engels
Premiership top goalscorer: Lawrence Shankland
5
Bill Leckie reckons Shankland will shine again
Credit: Kenny Ramsay
Derek McGregor
Premiership:
1, Rangers
2, Celtic
3, Hibs
Relegation play-off place: Falkirk
Bottom of Premiership: Dundee
Championship winners: St Johnstone
League One winners: Alloa Athletic
League Two winners: Clyde
Player of the Year: Benjamin Nygren
Premiership top goalscorer: Claudio Braga
Andy Devlin
Premiership:
1, Celtic
2, Rangers
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Livingston
Bottom of Premiership: Dundee
Championship winners: Ross County
League One winners: Inverness Caley Thistle
League Two winners: East Kilbride
Player of the Year: Djeidi Gassama
Premiership top goalscorer: Daizen Maeda
Robert Martin
Premiership:
1, Celtic
2, Rangers
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Livingston
Bottom of Premiership: Dundee
Championship winners: St Johnstone
League One winners: Inverness Caley Thistle
League Two winners: Edinburgh City
Player of the Year: Kieran Tierney
Premiership top goalscorer: Lawrence Shankland
Billy Dodds on returning to Rangers under Barry Ferguson, defeating Mourinho & ending Celtic Park hoodoo
Gareth Law
Premiership:
1, Celtic
2, Rangers
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Dundee
Bottom of Premiership: Falkirk
Championship winners: St Johnstone
League One winners: Inverness Caley Thistle
League Two winners: East Kilbride
Player of the Year: Callum McGregor
Premiership top goalscorer: Lawrence Shankland
Kenny MacDonald
Premiership:
1, Celtic
2, Rangers
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Falkirk
Bottom of Premiership: Dundee
Championship winners: Ross County
League One winners: Inverness Caley Thistle
League Two winners: Elgin City
Player of the Year: Callum McGregor
Premiership top goalscorer: Daizen Maeda
Robert Thomson
Premiership:
1, Celtic
2, Rangers
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Dundee
Bottom of Premiership: Falkirk
Championship winners: Ross County
League One winners: Inverness Caley Thistle
League Two winners: Forfar
Player of the Year: Reo Hatate
Premiership top goalscorer: Daizen Maeda
5
Reo Hatate is Robert Thomson's star man
Credit: Kenny Ramsay
David Friel
Premiership:
1, Celtic
2, Rangers
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Livingston
Bottom of Premiership: Dundee
Championship winners: Ayr United
League One winners: Cive Rangers
League Two winners: East Kilbride
Player of the Year: Benjamin Nygren
Premiership top goalscorer: Adam Idah
Ben Ramage
Premiership:
1, Celtic
2, Rangers
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Dundee
Bottom of Premiership: Livingston
Championship winners: Ross County
League One winners: Queen of the South
League Two winners: Edinburgh City
Player of the Year: Kieran Tierney
Premiership top goalscorer: Daizen Maeda
Roger Hannah
Premiership:
1, Celtic
2, Rangers
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Livingston
Bottom of Premiership: Dundee
Championship winners: Ayr United
League One winners: Inverness Caley Thistle
League Two winners: East Kilbride
Player of the Year: Benjamin Nygren
Premiership top goalscorer: Daizen Maeda
Kris Boyd
Premiership:
1, Rangers
2, Celtic
3, Hearts
Relegation play-off place: Motherwell
Bottom of Premiership: Dundee
Championship winners: St Johnstone
League One winners: Inverness Caley Thistle
League Two winners: East Kilbride
Player of the Year: Djeidi Gassama
Premiership top goalscorer: Lawrence Shankland
5
Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Belfast Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Irish League club set for financial boost as Northern Ireland striker on verge of League One switch
The 21-year-old is on the move from Nottingham Forest in a deal worth more than £1million. Linfield will also net a financial boost after Taylor joined Forest from the Blues as a teenager in 2020. He spent the 2024/25 campaign on loan at League One outfit Wigan Athletic from Forest, scoring 10 goals and providing seven assists in 42 appearances. The striker claimed both the Players' Player of the Year and Player of the Year prizes, becoming the first loan signing since Chelsea's Reece James (2018/19) to achieve the feat. Taylor will be hoping the move helps him add to his nine senior caps for Northern Ireland after making his debut against Lithuania in 2021. His international comrade Jamie Donley has joined Championship club Stoke City on loan. The 20-year-old Tottenham Hotspur forward was hot property following an impressive loan stint in League One with Leyton Orient in the 2024/25 term. He scored eight goals and provided 10 assists as the O's made the Play-Off Final. Although several Championship sides were keen on his signature, Stoke got the deal over the line. Donley said: 'I had a few teams after me, but I decided on Stoke when the gaffer (Mark Robins) called while I was away on tour with Spurs. 'The way he wants to play, both in terms of attacking and defending, definitely suits me. 'I've heard a lot about the coaching staff and how the manager improves young players. 'You can see that in the history he's had in working with different teams. 'I'm very much a team player, Stoke City fans can know I'll work really hard whether that's defensively or making options to receive the ball to play forward. 'I enjoyed a really positive loan last year, I know about the pressure of men's football now and how people look to you to contribute in games. 'I took to that pressure well and I want to carry that on here at Stoke City.' In the Sports Direct Premiership, Crusaders have signed defender Odhran McCart following his departure from Ards. Glenavon have made goalkeeper Tadhg Ryan available for transfer.
Belfast Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
It's unfair to enforce seasonal change and play during summer when most of the Irish League is part-time: Chris Shields
Linfield warrior Chris Shields has argued it would be unfair and wrong to enforce summer football on part-time Irish League players. Speaking during Linfield's European odyssey in the summer of 2025, Shields has reiterated his caution about any change to the Premiership fixtures calendar.
Scotsman
6 hours ago
- Scotsman
Hearts transfer targets and Jamestown Analytics' role explained in detail
Transfer window has been busy at Tynecastle Park Sign up to our Hearts newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Nine new signings with potentially more to follow amounts to one of the busiest summers in Hearts' history. Even the once transfer-obsessed Vladimir Romanov would be proud of his old club's dealings. Research on new players is considerably more robust nowadays thanks to Jamestown Analytics. Their secretive workings and relationship with the Edinburgh club remain a source of much fascination. For Derek McInnes, the Hearts head coach, Jamestown's data is an advantageous tool. He was inquisitive at his job interview in May about what the London-based sports recruitment firm do and how they help the Tynecastle club. The partnership was explained in detail, and McInnes then held further talks with Tynecastle's new investor Tony Bloom this week. Jamestown is an offshoot of Bloom's gambling software company Starlizard. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad McInnes has overseen the arrival of nine new recruits since his appointment: Norwegian right-back Christian Borchgrevink, Greek winger Alexandros Kyziridis, Portuguese forward Claudio Braga, Irish midfielder Oisin McEntee, Belgian striker Elton Kabangu, Scottish centre-back Stuart Findlay, Albanian winger Sabah Kerjota, Icelandic midfielder Tomas Bent Magnusson and Burkinabe forward Pierre Landry Kabore. He provided a detailed insight into the inner workings of the Hearts-Jamestown agreement. 'When I was interviewed, it was kind of relayed to me what that looked like,' he said. 'I was quite inquisitive about the parameters and how it all works. Graeme Jones [Hearts sporting director] had given me fine detail about how they see it working. I was obviously encouraged and excited by that. 'In days gone by, for any manager in normal circumstances, you'd get offered a player and you and your staff with your recruitment team would look through maybe eight to 10 hours of footage, watching different types of games, different clips. We're no longer doing that now as a staff, so we're getting the benefit of having these players getting watched to death. 'I don't know how many minutes they look at for every player, but every game that they've played has been watched and analysed and marked and judged and all the rest of it. So, when we then say we're looking for this type of profile, they'll spit out maybe four or five options for us to look at. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Now I must say, we've not signed everybody that's been proposed to us, there's been a few that we've moved away from quite quickly. That's not to say they weren't good players, because they're clearly all good players that Jamestown are offering. A lot of these players come from leagues that you probably wouldn't have been looking in, like Kerjota for instance, and even Magnussen. Hearts transfers and positions in mind 'These are guys that Jamestown have the benefit and the confidence that they're sourcing them before they get their [big] move - if you know what I mean - and they're identifying good players. I think it's clear that every player that they've proposed is a good footballer. It's up to us to try and make those footballers better. Every signing as a manager, it's up to us to try and validate that confidence. when you bring a player in. That's always the way for a manager, when you sign a player you always want to make them work. 'Not every signing is going to work for different reasons. But I do think we all take confidence from the fact that a lot of the work that normally us managers and staff have to go through has all been done, and you're just getting at that end point. Sometimes you see it right away. You watch a player and you watch the clip and you go: 'What a good player he is.' 'We all think the same thing. We could all be sitting in a room as a staff, we just watch the game, we watch the clips, we don't speak while we're watching it. Then it's: 'What a good player he is.' You just get a good feeling about it, and the fact that other people have done their work before they propose them to you, it gives you an added security. An endorsement, I suppose. Normally, it's just my decision or the staff's decision. We feel as though we've got the right people getting us to that point.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Despite the extensive business done so far, Hearts may yet target more new recruits. Adam Forrester's proposed loan move to St Johnstone would leave the right-back department short on cover. Craig Gordon's persistent shoulder injury may also necessitate a move for another goalkeeper, so Jamestown will likely be called upon again before the summer transfer window closes on 1 September. The ability to free up time would appeal to any top-flight football manager in what is a 24/7 job. McInnes is no different. Jamestown remove a fair portion of the laborious process when researching a potential signing target. Consequently, the Hearts head coach should have plenty extra time for other duties at Riccarton. 'I should have, but it doesn't feel like it,' he laughed. 'We're still looking at players all the time, we're still getting stuff proposed to us. There are a few that we've moved on from pretty quickly. There is still loads to do for any manager, particularly during pre-season and particularly in the [transfer] window. Maybe once the window closes we'll get a wee bit more time to do what we want to do, rather than poring over players.' READ MORE: Transfer progress at Tynecastle as defender nears a move
