STEVE Clarke has described Callum McGregor as “a manager’s dream” after selecting the Celtic captain in his Scotland squad for the Euro 2024 qualifiers against Cyprus and Spain later this month.
McGregor will make his 50th appearance for his country if, as seems certain given the form he has been in during the 2022/23 campaign, he starts the Group A match against Cyprus at Hampden on Saturday week.
The central midfielder has been an ever-present in the national team since Clarke took over from Alex McLeish as manager back in 2019.
The former Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle United assistant admitted that he enjoys working with the 29-year-old and appreciates what he offers Scotland both on and off the park.
“He is a credit to himself and to his club,” he said. “And he is a credit to his country. Every time you pick him he is there.
“He plays almost every minute of every game for Celtic, he plays almost every minute of every game for us. He is just very, very consistent. His quality is good. He is low maintenance, high quality. He is a manager’s dream.”
Clarke was unsurprised when Ange Postecoglou chose McGregor to replace Scott Brown as Celtic skipper in 2021 and revealed he is a positive influence on the Scotland squad as well.
“He was always captain material Callum to be honest,” he said. “He was always very assured. He speaks well in the group. He doesn’t speak all the time, but when he speaks everybody listens. Which is a really good trait to have.”
McGregor is one of no fewer than eight players in the 23 man Scotland squad who have made over 30 international appearances and Clarke expects their experience to prove invaluable during the forthcoming Euro 2024 qualifying campaign.
“Callum has won quite a lot of caps in a reasonably short space of time,” he said. “It was Malky (Mackay) who capped him first (in a friendly against the Netherlands at Pittodrie in 2017). It wasn’t that long ago that he got his first cap and now he is approaching 50.
“If you look at the numbers beside the boys the number of caps is going up all the time. Very early on, I spoke about getting all the boys in the core of the squad picking up caps years in, year out.
“Suddenly we are starting to look like a team that has got good international experience. Hopefully we can put it to good use in the coming campaign.”
