Living in the South west of England with a young family, I don't get up to Ibrox very often but do escape the old ball and chain at least once a year to treat myself to a European trip away (feel free to call me a glory hunter!). Now that the nightmare of nearly being kicked off the bus in the middle of the Spanish countryside en route to Seville from Malaga thanks to the mad bad Ballymena boys has turned into a jolly story, its time to start looking forward to next season.
With most of the leagues on the continent complete or nearing completion, its clear that Rangers will most likely end up in Pot 3 as we would need four teams out of Seville, Lyon, Werder Bremen, Zenit, and Spurs to get knocked out in order to allow us entry into pot 2 again. Given that its more than possible that the vice-champions from across the city will be playing one of these teams, I don't think I'd be too upset if their humiliation led to us being demoted a pot.
Pot 1 will of course contain the usual big boys from England, Spain and Italy. With trips in the tournament in recent years to Manchester, Barcelona, Munich, Seville and Milan under our belts, surely a trip to London beckons?
With the worst timed holiday in the history of creation meaning I missed the Emirates last season, a trip there would be nice but the dream draw for me would be to our friends at Stamford Bridge. Perhaps we could persuade them to move it to Wembley so only half of our traveling support would be locked out?
Pot 2, Madrid remains the wish for most Rangers fan. We've been to all the other big teams but somehow have avoided Spain's royal team. It's a conspiracy!
In terms of their form in recent years and traveling, Shakhtar Donetsk are the nightmare draw for this bear but perhaps we are destined to be reunited with Marseille?
Pot 4 is much less clear as in theory everybody from New Saints in Wales to Copenhagen could be in there. The reality is we could end up anywhere in eastern Europe even although the might FC Saint Coloma of Andover remain in the draw. Anybody fancy a trip to Dublin?
Having gone through this, I see the following draws as the best and worst:
Likely to gather most points: AC Milan, Benfica and Bohemians
Fewest points: Man United, Royal Madrid and Spartak Moscow
Best Trips away: Chelsea, Royal Madrid and Linfield
Worst Trips away: Seville, Shakhtar Donesk and FK Aktobe (Kazakhstan)
Now, I'm off to look out my FC Basel scarf in their battle against the Young Boys this weekend.