Scottish football is lurching between extremes.
There remains a great sense of frustration and disma at missing out on Euro 2016 in France, yet domestic season ticket sales are on the rise.
Scotland's failure in the qualifying campaign brought an inevitable period of introspection, but the preparations of the rest of the home nations for the finals, alongside two friendly matches in which Gordon Strachan's national team failed to register a shot on target, have exacerbated the reproachful mood.
Yet domestic football has found resilience within reach, since the arrival of Brendan Rodgers at Celtic created queues of supporters seeking season tickets on Monday. Rangers, too, are confident of selling more season tickets than ever, with 33,000 fans having renewed before last Friday's deadline.
Hearts are on course to repeat last year's feat of selling all of their season tickets and essentially filling Tynecastle's home attendance for every league game. Aberdeen will hope that consecutive second-place finishes will enhance the sense of progress being made under Derek McInnes and attract significant crowds.