THERE have been occasions in the past when Callum McGregor could have left Celtic. But it is the occasions coming up over the next few days that vindicate his decision to stay.
That is the view of the Celtic captain, who is relishing the tantalising prospect of taking on city rivals Rangers at Celtic Park at lunchtime today before welcoming the mighty Real Madrid to Glasgow three days later for what promises to be one of those truly special Champions League nights at the stadium.
Not only will McGregor get to savour these occasions, but he will get to lead his team out into them as captain, and when asked if that was part of the reason he had no regrets over his career-long commitment to the club, he said: “Yeah, obviously as a football player you want to play in the biggest games, and with the way the fixtures have landed this week it’s two of the biggest ones.
“That is what you want, you want to play against these top teams and keep testing yourself at the highest level.
“It’s great for everyone involved in the club and in the squad as well, so everyone is really looking forward to it.”
The first of those challenges of course is the small matter of the first Old Firm derby of the season. If the build-up has been a little curtailed due to the transfer window ending just prior to it and the Real Madrid game looming just after, there is still no getting away from how consequential today’s game could be even in these first knockings of the campaign.
If Celtic win, they go five points clear, and would not only seize the momentum in the early title race, but lay down a marker to their great, bitter rivals that they are still the top dogs in the country.
All that though, says McGregor, is far from the minds of the Celtic players. His line is not as trite as saying they are ‘taking each game as it comes’, with the Celtic skipper knowing full well the significance of the match. But his manager has his men’s minds trained on simply bettering what they have produced to this point every time they step on the field.
“That’s the way the manager asks us to play all the time to be honest,” he said. “He asks us if we can play our best football in the next game, and once that one is finished, he asks us to go again and replicate that or even get better.
“We know that the next game is Rangers, and that is what we want to do.
“The message doesn’t change in terms of who we play or what competition we play in, we just approach it exactly the same as every other one and try to give our best performance in any given match.
“That’s the full focus of the players, but obviously we understand the consequence of winning the game tomorrow, it obviously pushes us on a little bit more in the league.
“But we try not to focus too much on the outcome, it’s more about the performance and getting the mentality of the game and the game-plan right.
“Hopefully that will be the consequence of that and we’ll be in a good place come Saturday afternoon.”
Does that mean they could even better the explosive showing in the Celtic Park encounter in February, when a first-half whirlwind not only blew Rangers away, but fatally blew them off their title course?
“That’s the challenge the manager has set,” he said. “He’s always asking if we can be better than last season, can we improve on what we did last season?
“That is the challenge laid down to the group of players we’ve got, and when it comes to these big games, that’s when it is important to step up and show your quality.
“The mentality and the mindset of the group is really strong. We want to try to play our best football in the next game, and that next game is against Rangers.”
McGregor got his first goal of the season in the League Cup win over Ross County on Wednesday night, playing in a more advanced position than he will be today against Rangers. Still, he would quite like to follow it up by adding to his four-goal haul against the Ibrox outfit, a tally that makes him the man with the most goals against Rangers in the current Celtic squad.
The last of those came back in a Premiership clash in 2019, so while he enjoys reminiscing about those strikes, he would dearly love to create some fresher memories this afternoon.
“I remember them all!” he said. “The first one was in a cup game, where I passed it into the net from just outside the box. It’s always nice to get your first one and I remember that fondly.
“I got another good one at Hampden with my right foot, so those are great memories that you’ll want to look back on.
“But you always want to keep pushing on and try to make new memories, and that is what this group is all about, we want to make our own mark as a Celtic team. It is what these players are about too, they all want to make their mark as Celtic players as well.”
