Chris Jack: It is good to have club football back on the agenda after another low key international break

But the return of club football made them a good combination last week as the Premiership action got back up and running once again.

The international break is a fairly bleak few days at the best of times but the current plight of Gordon Strachan’s side make them all the tougher to get through.

The visit of Lithuania wasn’t exactly a glamour tie to get excited about, while the build-up to last Tuesday’s meeting with Slovakia was hardly a barrel of laughs either.

Read more: Mark Warburton was a gamble worth taking and I hope it pays off for Rangers, says former Watford chairman Graham Simpson

The national side are in a poor state and even the most patriotic punter must be finding it hard going these days.

Premiership matches may not be of the highest quality but most are entertaining enough to watch and there are always plenty of talking points to keep us all going from week to week.

When the focus switches to Scotland, there just isn’t the buzz that there should be and international football in general doesn’t really grab the attention anymore.

There is no doubt that Strachan and his players are proud to represent their country and give their all while they are wearing Dark Blue.

Read more: Mark Warburton was a gamble worth taking and I hope it pays off for Rangers, says former Watford chairman Graham Simpson

The majority of football fans in this country will wish them well and want them to win. But Scotland isn’t the be all and end all.

It’s nice when things go well and there is a disappointment when they don’t. For the generation of supporters that have only known failure on the international stage, it is hard to see how there could be the same emotional attachment to the national side as there is to the club they have grown up supporting.

Maybe it is the knowledge that our attempts to qualify will be futile, that there will be a bit of hope but that it will be extinguished quicker than the Tartan Army can rattle their way through another off-beat rendition of Flower of Scotland.

As part of BT Sport’s coverage of Crystal Palace against West Ham on Saturday evening, Harry Redknapp admitted he had ‘lost interest’ in England as they toiled at home to Malta.

“I am sitting the other night, I am not even watching the game,” he said. “I have got it on. I’ll be honest with you.

“I hear the commentator go ‘we are playing Malta, this number 18, he works at the check-out counter during the week at the supermarket’ and I think ‘what am I watching this for?

“I can’t wait for the Premier League to start again. I am excited today coming here watching a proper game, looking at the results. That fortnight, for me, it is a dead fortnight.”

It is a sentiment that will be shared by many. Watching your country is one thing, but the week long run of international fixtures isn’t an enticing proposition.

The European Championships in the summer were a feast of football but the qualification stages are a relative famine.

Rangers’ trip to the Highlands on Friday kicked off the domestic action once again and there were thrills, spills and the odd shock across all four divisions at the weekend.

Read more: Mark Warburton was a gamble worth taking and I hope it pays off for Rangers, says former Watford chairman Graham Simpson

Tonight, Liverpool will face Man United and on Wednesday Celtic host Borussia Monchengladbach and Man City travel to the Nou Camp.

The week will then be rounded off by an intriguing Betfred Cup semi-final between Aberdeen and Morton and the eagerly anticipated renewal of Old Firm hostilities at Hampden.

They are games that appeal to the neutral as well as the diehard and that is not something that can be said about the vast majority of international fixtures.

The Auld Enemy clash at Wembley next month will be a slightly different affair. It is one to look forward to.

And the best bit? It is the last international break until March.