Callum McGregor

Difficult to say... Plenty said McGregor wasn't up to it when he got the nod... Celtic tops don't shrink to fit inferior players, neither do captains armbands... You need to plunge the player in the furnace to see what you have.

 

I never doubted him tbh, knew he'd be a different kind of Captain from Broonie..

 

Callum McGregor has lifted the lid on his meeting with Brendan Rodgers last summer before the Celtic boss made his decision to come back.

The Northern Irishman and the Hoops shocked Scottish football by reconciling years after he had angered supporters by quitting for Leicester while they were getting towards the end of their quest from 10 Premiership titles in a row. Many struggled to accept the appointment but all has been forgiven after a league and cup double.


It was well documented at the time that Celtic directors flew out to Majorca to speak to Rodgers after identifying him as the man they wanted to replace Ange Postecoglou last summer. And the captain was another who made the trip to see his former boss


The pair have reflected on that moment now that the dust has settled on his first year back. Rodgers insists the chat with McGregor was key.


The Scotland midfielder gave his take and told Sky Sports: "Initially I was just buzzing to see him, it had been a few years. When the manager got in touch we sat down and spoke and very quickly it became clear that he was interested

He was probing and asking questions about certain players, how the club was and how it had moved forward. Straight away I'm getting excited because I'm thinking 'this is going to happen, he's going to come back.'


I just tried to give my honest evaluation of where I thought the club was, where we can get better and keeping pushing to evolve. I knew that would be a big thing for the manager, he wants to continue to move. That's one thing I learned from the first time he was here, he's always pushing for more and to raise the standards


We knew where we were wanting the club to go and I was excited about working with the manager again. We were a young, exciting squad that probably needed that next level of guidance again to get us to where we wanted to be. I thought the manager would be the perfect guy for that."

 

I'd like it to be CCV TBH. I don't know if he'll stay long enough for that to happen; but if he does, I think he'd be a good captain.

 

If CCV stays long term he is the man to take over from Callum as captain IMHO.

 

Would love us to ofer MOR the vice captains role with a pay rise to entice him to stay and see if he could grow into the role of captain. I reckon he’d be a great shout for a future leader.

 

They've done him dirty with the mince pies

 

Any slight hope of that happening, and it would be very slight regardless, left when he had a the season of his life. Was top ten assists in the CL, 1 in 2, PotY etc etc. we all know the season he’s had. And not selected in Denmarks squad.

That just cements in that what he does here doesn’t matter, but can earn him a move to be first choice, and honestly without the Green Specs on - World Class when he hits his peak. He won’t do that here. It’s very similar to Van Dijk. He would never get called up here, despite even then being the best Dutch defender. He left, got the call up, fulfilled his potential.


O’Riley can be near that level

 

Bullish Callum McGregor has insisted he will "put himself through anything" to guarantee success for club and country.

The 30-year-old midfielder battled back from an Achilles injury to play a pivotal role in Celtic's Scottish Premiership title run-in after it was initially feared the Scotland star could be a long term absentee and even miss the Euros when he endured the set-back against Dundee at the end of February.

His quick-fire return to action following just a 38 day lay-off showed McGregor's eagerness to play football and win trophies, and he reckons his strength of "will" was crucial to his speedy recovery.



The injury one was bad timing, difficult injury to manage as well," the Hoops skipper revealed.

"When we got the scan, it was bad news, it was pretty much season over but with determination and everything that there was still to play for and obviously having an eye on [Euro 2024] as well, sometimes the mind can do crazy things for you and will you back to a point when you can get yourself back fit.

"I'm willing to put myself through anything for the team to get success and that's just the way that I am. I'm so glad that it turned out the way it did. In football, fortune favours the brave as well a little bit."

McGregor's return to action earlier than anticipated and helped Celtic clinch a domestic double. While he took his Scotland cap tally to 60 after featuring in warm-up friendly clashes against Gibraltar and Finland last week.

He is now almost a certain starter in Steve Clarke's starting XI when Scotland face Germany in Munich on Friday.

"I managed to get myself back fit and [Celtic] won the two trophies that were on offer at the end and I've managed to get myself here as well so it's ended well," he told BBC Scotland.

"I was desperate and be part of [Euro 2024] as well.

"We want to not only get to tournaments but we want to take part and feel like we belong here. It's something that we need to enjoy and embrace and I'm sure we will.

"Hopefully, we are better off [than Euro 2020] and hopefully that'll show in the games as well

 

Like * Dave King

 

Pish tonight..

 

Aye, pish

 

Did you hear Souness slagging him??? Dirty hun *.

 

Better than the rest of that * team

 

Could do with a rest ahead of next season tbh. Recent injury or not he’s done in, he just never gives in

Playing in that shitshow did him no favours and he’s in clear need of a proper break.

 

He should fly home

 

Last night to me showed that we cannot go into Europe deploying Calum as that DM