Brendan Rodgers has revealed the key role the key role that Callum McGregor played in his return to Celtic.
During his first stint managing the club the Academy midfielder found a second wind to his Celtic career, seeing off Stefan Johansen, Nir Bitton and Tom Rogic to become the natural partner with Scott Brown in midfield.
Season on season McGregor’s influence has grown, taking on the captaincy of the club two years ago with ease, showing his leadership qualities in a different way from his predecessor.
Putting in incredible appearance numbers every season McGregor’s off time is limited but at some stage between the Scottish Cup Final on June 3 and Scotland’s win over Norway a fortnight later the Celtic skipper managed to meet up with his ‘new’ manager.
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He was pivotal back then, just seeing a young player develop. I’ve obviously seen him when I left and just seeing him continue to make that growth was really pleasing.
And I have to say he was a big part of my decision to come back as well, because I had a lunch with him for a few hours in Majorca, and just understanding the squad and where it was at and what he felt the club was at, he gave me some great feedback that the group is hungry, it’s young and ready to keep pushing forward.
And for me Callum’s an absolutely brilliant player on the pitch, his brain, his view of the game is right up there with the very, very best I’ve ever worked with. He’s robust, he plays many games, he’s the ultimate professional.
He’s robust, he plays many games, he’s the ultimate professional, but within that he has a great humility. So I’m absolutely delighted that coming back here, he’s the club captain.
McGregor signed off the 22/23 season with a goal for Scotland against Georgia in midweek, in a few weeks time he’ll be leading Celtic in Japan as another stage on his hoops career gets underway.
