Callum McGregor has taken to the Celtic captaincy like a duck to water. His transition to the role has been almost seamless and has taken on the role with apparent ease.
But we all know taking on that role is not easy. Being the captain of this club comes with the expectation and pressure of winning silverware. That can seem like a burden to most players. But not to Callum McGregor.
Former Celtic boss, Neil Lennon explains gives credit to one former player that helped McGregor’s transition to the Celtic captaincy and gives a fascinating insight into how the current captain operates behind the scenes.
Lennon said [Daily Record], “Callum had a great role model in Broony and the pair of them were as thick as thieves for a long time. Callum’s a player of high intelligence and great discipline and he’s as professional as you can get – he’s a manager’s dream, really.
“Callum was almost groomed for the captaincy. He and Broony played together for a long time and were very successful but he has a totally different personality from his predecessor.
“Broony is more outgoing and more feisty whereas Callum is cold but he reads the game brilliantly and is very good tactically on top of that. He would always be one of the first picks. He’s had a stellar career so far and there’s a real maturity about him – for Scotland as well as Celtic. Steve Clarke is delighted with him and he’s coming into his peak years.”
McGregor was always going to be the natural successor to Scott Brown. I’ll happily admit that I was fearful of the day Brown left Celtic. Losing such an influential and successful player, never mind captain, would be difficult under normal circumstances.
But taking over during a complete rebuild under a new manager and CEO after the pain of a trophyless season? That’s a whole different level of challenge.
And McGregor has embraced that. He helped drive Celtic towards a league and cup double in his first season and looks set to follow that up with a treble should we win the Scottish Cup next month.
And whilst Callum has brought his own qualities to the Celtic captaincy, clearly, we can’t underestimate the role that Scott Brown had in helping develop him for the responsibility of leading this great club.
In other news, Chris Sutton pokes fun at BBC pundit’s ‘toe to toe’ Celtic comments
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
