Celtic captain Callum McGregor delivers quality response to title race query

By John McGinley

October 28, 2021

Celtic captain Callum McGregor has insisted the Bhoys dressing room is not thinking about Rangers at all as the Scottish Premiership title race heats up.

Celtic are two points behind the league leaders after 11 matches, in striking distance of going top of the table this weekend.

However, the message out of the Lennoxtown camp is one of calmness and composure as they insist it’s still far too early to be talking about silverware.

For McGregor, it’s all about gradual improvement and he reckons there’s no limit to how good the team can become under Ange Postecoglou.

As quoted by STV, he said after last night’s win against Hibernian: “It’s still early doors. We were probably on the receiving end of those questions a few weeks ago before the international break and you see how quickly it can turn. By no means do we start to look at the end game.

“It’s a quarter of the way through the season and there’s so much football to be played. The good thing about this team is that I still think there’s improvement in it as well. We’ll keep putting demands on each other to get better and better and I think you saw the fruits of that tonight.

“I think we just look at ourselves. We look at our fixtures and where we can get points and we approach every game to get maximum points and to keep getting better. This is a completely new team and we’re still finding out just how good we could be.

“We’re not looking elsewhere, we’re just looking within the building and trying to push each other every day. I spoke about the manager putting demands on us and that’s what he’s doing. I think you can see the players responding to that and responding to the challenge as well because there’s so many young ones in the team to develop. Once we get that right, who is to say how good we can be?”

McGregor has been an impressive operator with the media for quite a while now. However, since becoming captain, he’s become an even better ambassador for the club.

Whether it’s speaking with supporters at a fan media event, facing the press or commenting after matches he always seems to say the right thing.

If this is the mentality he is helping to forge within this squad group then good things are on the horizon for the Bhoys. It’s confidence without arrogance. It’s demanding the best while recognising it doesn’t come automatically.

Wonderful stuff from the midfielder.

In other news, Confirmed: Bobby Madden gets Celtic Park assignment after 27 foul madness last time.