Callum McGregor has launched a strong defence of the Celtic side that will finish this season trophyless.
The midfielder has been largely exempted from criticism but with the season collapsing month by month he knows all about the blame that has come from many fans.
Apart from David Turnbull the new signings have made little impact other than on the pay-roll while the four loan signings will be waved off with little fanfare or emotion.
That has left McGregor with a greater burden to carry with the downsizing in quality from 2017 illustrating the problem.
As Celtic clinched an Invincible Treble he could look around at team-mates like Stuart Armstrong, Mikael Lustig, Moussa Dembele, Kieran Tierney and Scott Sinclair. That quality hasn’t been replaced in the squad that John Kennedy takes to Ibrox today.
Four seasons of treble successes has now come to a halt with time to reflect on those achievements as Celtic prepare for a massive summer turnover.
The Sun reports:
McGregor accepts all the criticism coming Celtic’s way after a barren campaign on the trophy hunt. Yet he launched a defence of the players amid claims some of them didn’t have the fight for ten in a row.
He said: “It might get to some players but unless you have done it and you have achieved it, it’s very difficult to say things like that. For the guys who have experienced it and earned it, only they know how difficult it is to do.
“I try not to take things like that personally, because I know how hard it is to get up and do it every single morning but when you have that track record behind you, that speaks for itself. You don’t suddenly become a bad player or a bad team overnight.
“To do what we did in terms of 12 trophies in a row, it takes huge amounts of guts, energy and actual performance levels to keep performing at that level for three, four, five years. There is probably going to be a dip at some point, so it’s about regathering your thoughts in that sense.
“Take the learning experiences and once you wipe the slate clean at the end of the season, you go again after that. I’d much rather be in that position where I have all that experience behind me and then try to bounce back the following year.”
According to the Celtic website McGregor is under contract until the summer of 2024.
