Craig Gordon feels Aberdeen and Hearts could pose serious question for Celtic in the Scottish Premiership title race next season.
Celtic won the Scottish league title at a canter last season and were 17 points clear of second placed Aberdeen.
It was their fourth successive league title and the Bhoys are again expected to dominate the Scottish top tier next season.
While Celtic are favourites for the league title, Gordon feels Aberdeen have the quality to threaten their dominance in Scotland and has also backed Hearts to do well in their first campaign back in the top tier.
"Aberdeen have done well in Europe, haven't lost many players and have added, so they will be strong again”, Gordon said at a press conference this afternoon.
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"Hearts will be looking to do well in their first season up but there could be a couple more that surprise."
While eventually it was all about Celtic in the Scottish Premiership last season, they did stutter at the start and took some time to take full flight under the tutelage of new boss Ronny Deila.
However, Gordon feels there can be no excuse for the Hoops to start badly this time around and stressed that they need to begin their defence of the league title strongly.
"We have to try and hit the ground running.
“We took a bit of time to adjust to the way we are playing last season. No excuse now."
Under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson, Aberdeen were the last side outside the Old Firm to win the Scottish top tier, in the 1984/85 season.
