Celtic captain Callum McGregor brilliantly shoots down potential excuse for rivals

By David Walton

March 22, 2022

Celtic captain Callum McGregor has dismissed any idea that Rangers being involved in European football will have a major effect on the title-race.

Surprisingly, Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side are still hanging in there in the Europa League. They’ll be involved in the quarter-finals as they’re scheduled to face Braga next month.

Days after the first-leg, our rivals will travel to St Mirren in the Premiership. And less than 72 hours after the second, they’ll face off against Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-finals. Their fixture list will get even more hectic if they progress and make the semis.

But McGregor isn’t interested in any media narratives over them struggling because of their calendar. Instead, he simply stated that teams should be used to it and that it won’t affect the title-race. As quoted by the Daily Record, Callum said: “Teams are used to it now. They are in European competitions pretty much every season. If you want to do well in these competitions then you have to play every three or four days.

“Players are used to playing 60-plus games a season. I don’t see it as a problem at all. I can’t speak for them (Rangers) but what we do when we have the European games .. it tests you as a player and makes you a better player.

“Then when you come back to the domestic stuff that’s where you try and show it.”

Callum McGregor hits the nail on the head – no premeditated excuses for Rangers please

Spot on from Callum here. Can we please avoid having premediated excuses should Rangers fail to win the league title? That’s what it feels as though it’s building towards here. And. it’s fair to say it’s already frustrating.

Let’s not forget that Rangers have damaged their own title chances by dropping points in games that didn’t come immediately after European games. The dropped points against Aberdeen, Ross County, and Celtic to name a few didn’t come after Euro outings.

So you can’t just point to them being involved in Europe and use it as a potential excuse. It’s not as if they don’t have the squad to be rotating often enough.

After all, Rangers fans are always going on about their strength in depth. Always telling us how great a squad they have and that they can deal with anything that comes their way. If they’re using facing Braga as an excuse to not win at St Mirren, then you simply have to laugh them right out the door.

After all, it’s not as if anyone was willing to give us some leeway in the first half of the campaign when injury woes were aplenty. It’s difficult to remember the slack that we were cut.

So Callum is right to dismiss this nonsense. It’s getting tiresome.

In other news, Ange Postecoglou lays out his exciting UEFA Champions League goal at Celtic