It’s time to breathe, Celtic fans!
After months and months of ugly football, managerial changes, fan protests, and board members leaving, the moral of the story remained the same for Celtic and Scotland.
For the fifth time in a row, Celtic have been crowned Premiership champions, defeating Hearts on the final day of the season in front of an emotional home crowd.
Callum McGregor was honest enough to state that the Hoops just didn’t play ‘free-flowing’ football this season, but instead, they had to rely on their ‘character and mentality’, which shone through right at the end.
“The word character and mentality,” said McGregor. “We won that title on that, basically. It wasn’t free-flowing football. It’s heart and desire.”
Share us your message to Martin O’Neill, as Celtic down Hearts on the final day…
Callum McGregor on fan unrest this season as Celtic win the title
Let’s be honest, if it wasn’t for Martin O’Neill, then Celtic would have been long out of the title race by now, and not even in the Scottish Cup final.
But just like he did over 20 years ago, the legendary Irishman worked his magic, made everybody move in the right direction, and now the rest is history.
While McGregor can breathe a sigh of relief that Celtic have won title number 56 for Scotland’s most successful club, he admitted that off-field unrest was troubling.
There was non-stop fan protests against the Celtic board for most of the season, and the skipper told Sky Sports it ‘affected the team’ and it also ‘affected the club.’
But it was all put to a halt, which then resulted in Celtic winning every post-split fixture, and just like Kieran Tierney earlier, McGregor was also emotional when reacting to it all on the Parkhead pitch.
“You pour your heart and soul into this job, and you can’t do it if you don’t have emotion,” said McGregor. “You carry it with you every single day, you can never, ever switch it off.
“In the good moments, it’s unbelievable, but in the bad moments, it’s even worse. Every time you leave your house, everybody is reminding you. ‘What is happening with the team? What is happening with the team?’
“Desperate to fix it. When you start to overcome those hurdles, you start to see the team put one foot ahead of the other.
“Today, we have five minutes to go. You are thinking, ‘Is it going to happen? Are we going to fall at the last hurdle?’ But credit to the boys, they just never know when they are beat. That’s the emotion that comes out at the end. It’s such a hard season, and we managed to get over the line.
On the off-field noise and fan protests: “It has been tough,” added McGregor. “It does affect the team. It affects the club.
“So, it’s hard as players, when you go on the pitch, and you feel that atmosphere. You feel the negativity. It was a stop-start season at best.
“Just when you think you get going, something else happens. Just when you think you’re getting moving, something else happens.
“The word character and mentality. We won that title on that, basically. It wasn’t free-flowing football. It’s heart and desire.”
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
