Tom Duthie: Early start to League Cup is a big gamble

Next week the real ball comes out in the domestic season when United travel to Arbroath in whatever the League Cup is called right now.

Dundee are in action the following day and I have to admit I’m still trying to get my head around going to competitive football in mid-July.

At least it’s going to be interesting.

I’m intrigued to see how well bigger teams perform after a much shorter than usual pre-season build-up.

I fancy most of them to negotiate their way through the group stages but I won’t be surprised if there is the odd blip in the opening round of fixtures.

The big unanswered question for me, though, is how the fans will take to the new format.

In recent years the competition has struggled to attract good crowds and I can’t see that changing.