Hope of glory

Celtic will be hoping for a European run this season

BBC Scotland football pundit Chick Young hopes for a positive outcome when Scottish clubs do battle in Europe this week.

At the risk of sounding like Captain Mainwaring, it is important, chaps, that we don't bow to the threat of the enemy from over the Channel in the days ahead.

The Home Guard, namely Celtic, Rangers and Kilmarnock, launch - or in the case of the Ibrox side continue - their European campaigns on various fronts around the continent. Hibs will join battle at a later stage of course.

It would be rather nice if, this time around, someone could make an impact.

Killie's mission is pretty straightforward. They face Glenavon with the first leg across the Irish Sea and no Scottish side should stumble at an early stage of a European competition against opposition from the Emerald Isle...unless you're Aberdeen.

I'm not under-rating Ajax but I fancy Celtic strongly

Chick Young

If Bobby Williamson doesn't take his team into the first round proper of the Uefa Cup then he should give up being boss of Killie and turn into a real life Fat Boab alongside Oor Wullie.

Rangers have a trickier job on their hands. Fenerbahce will provide a fearsome obstacle to their ambitions to make the Champions League and it is vital that Dick Advocaat's side achieve some kind of lead to take to Istanbul.

Don't believe the "Welcome to Hell" publicity about Turkey. They can be a little heated over there, that's for sure, but the environment won't be Hades.

If Rangers lay the foundations this week then they can tiptoe across the broken glass in Istanbul and arrive in the destination of their dreams...the Champions League.

But it is the Celtic tie which really intrigues.

The Scottish champions share plenty in common with Ajax...a glorious European heritage, wonderful - if faded - memories of the European Cup and fanatical followings.

Caniggia saw Rangers through against Maribor

I watched Ajax take on amateur side Rynsburg around 20 miles from Amsterdam last Wednesday night and roll up a 10-0 victory.

To be fair our legendary charity team Dukla Pumpherston could have given Rynsburg a game so it was hard to judge the Dutch masters...but I fancy Celtic strongly.

I'm not under-rating Ajax because here is a team who won their own pre-season tournament against Liverpool and AC Milan. Mug teams don't do that.

In their Egyptian left-sided front player Mido they have a star who scored six times against the amateurs and who - at the age of 19 - looks a real prospect. But that sentence itself gives a real clue about Ajax.

The average age of the squad is 21 and hence, rather obviously, they lack real experience.

For me they don't look capable of matching Celtic physically...except perhaps in the case of central defender Yakubu...a Ghanaian built like a brick outhouse who looks capable of kicking his granny if the coach so instructs.

He will do the marking job on Henrik Larsson. So tightly that I'm told that if Larsson needs to visit the aforementioned outhouse then Yakubu will follow him all the way.

Hopefully it will be Ajax who will be flushed out of the European Cup into the Uefa tournament, taking Fenerbahce with them for company.

As for Glenavon, if they beat Killlie then Oor Wullie had better make some room on his bucket...and plenty of it.