Callum McGregor is The Celtic Star’s Player of the Year

Callum McGregor is The Celtic Star’s Player of the Year for season 2020/21 as the midfielder follows on from Odsonne Edouard last season and James Forrest the year before in being given this honour.

Previously we have asked supporters to vote via a poll but given the way the season had gone we thought we thought we’d try something slightly different this time around, to save you the bother and also to lay out in green and white exactly how much each and every player contributed this season.

After every match Sandman provides us with his brilliant Definitive Ratings so we thought we’d look back on the enter season – and it was far from being a pleasant task – and added the scores dished out to each player in the starting eleven for every game this season.

Photo by Stuart Wallace

Last week we reviewed  the season on a month by month basis, nearer the end we combined March and April into one article as there were so few games in these months. Each time the new scores were added to the previous months and we have now completed this by adding in Sandman’s Definitive Ratings for May 2021.

Sandman is working on his own Review of the Season and this should be ready by the end of the week. Incidentally he’s not too sure about the results in terms of who should be the Player of the Year, and as always these things are open to debate and discussion. As already stated, the main reason we wanted to run the Celtic Star’s Player of the Year this was was to shine a light on the enter squad and to see what each player has contributed.

Around 60,000 Celtic Supporters paid for their season tickets this time last year and got to attend no matches at all at Celtic Park. Instead we were given our Pass to Paradise – two for this household, many other Celtic families had many more. The Celtic support was prepared to fund this once in a generation or even a lifetime opportunity to secure The Ten. Around 25,000 supporters did not take the refund available from the games paid for and not played the previous season – this money was also put towards paying the wages of this Celtic squad.

Photo: Andrew Milligan

You get the chance to see what we got for our money looking at the scores below.

Sandman put forward an argument for Kris Ajer getting the Player of the Year Award, rather than Callum McGregor, in his Definitive Ratings after Saturday’s goalless draw at Easter Road. Sandman awarded Calmac just 3/10 on Saturday in his Definitive Ratings, saying:

Thrown in to grab the Celtic Star Player Of The Year Award by dint of more games = more points, but he’s NOT mine. Bafflingly…Those top 2 – over 40 games each, get the average points and and there’s yer man.

As for Calmac now, oh dear; the fall of a great coreographer – more shadow dancer than troupe leader now as he ghosted around the game. Wherefore art thou, Calmac? Get the mojo back.

Sandman actually answers his own query with this remarks. Here we have a player who more than anyone else have given his absolute all for Celtic not only this season but for the past four years. The difference this time is that he had fewer teammates willing or able to shown anything like the same levels of ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ fighting for the Celtic jersey.

Photo: Andrew Milligan

He did so playing every week out of position,  putting the team ahead of his own standing in the game, no interest in attracting suitors. He’ll be going to the Euros but unlike others he put that to one side and put Celtic first. He’d have known that the captain Scott Brown beside him was also ready to give everything but was in his final season at the club and the legs weren’t what they once were. Calmac helped shoulder that responsibility too.

Our Wants Aways – and they all know who they are – are mostly going to get their wish over the next few weeks or months. Of them all Kristoffer Ajer comes out best but was his improvement in form down to his own strategic decision to impress to get the best possible move this summer? Who knows. So far he’s been the subject of enquiries from Norwich and Newcastle.

Callum McGregor put Celtic before Callum McGregor, hand on heart we cannot assume that Kristoffer Ajer did that. His agent was vocal last summer about being in Milan discussing a transfer. His national team manager was also shouting his mouth off, insulting Scottish football in the process, saying that Ajer needed to move this summer to one of the big leagues. He said he’d been talking to the Celtic player on the telephone making these points, so Ajer had his agent and his international manager looking for him to leave Celtic.

Photo: Andrew Milligan

Any scout watching that game on Saturday will have noted that a Hibs defender jumped for a free header with Ajer rooted to the spot as has often happened this season. The free header from 6 yards right in the centre of the Celtic goals went over the bar but Ajer’s defending was unimpressive. He has attributes, there is no doubt about that, but the central defence this season has been a weak link, especially at set-pieces, and it’s not something that can be overlooked.

A few points to note when May’s three ratings have been added in. Odsonne Edouard pushed ahead of Ryan Christie to claim fourth spot and Stephen Welsh jumped ahead of Christopher Jullien in mid-table. Leigh Griffiths appeared mid-season to remind us that he wanted to stay at Celtic, suggesting that he’d be due a testimonial. If there was a brass neck award for this season he’d be the clear winner.

So it’s Callum McGregor, for selflessly running himself into the ground for the Celtic cause, who is The Celtic Star’s Player of the Year for 2020/21.  Congratulations to Callum and hopefully next season he’ll be played by the new manager in his best position and maybe not as often as this time around.

Sandman’s own review of the season will no doubt be his opportunity to comment on this – hard hat will be on – but it’s all about opinions and we’d like to hear from you too. You can email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk  or Celtic Supporters can add a comment below.

Photo: Jeff Holmes

 THE CELTIC STAR PLAYER OF THE YEAR RESULTS – SEASON 2020/21

1. CALLUM McGREGOR – STARTS 51 POINTS 309
2. KRISTOFFER AJER – STARTS 45 POINTS 288
3. SCOTT BROWN – STARTS 39 POINTS 256
4. ODSONNE EDOUARD – STARTS 36 POINTS 223.5
5. RYAN CHRISTIE – STARTS 40 POINTS 215
6. DAVID TURNBULL – STARTS 29 POINTS 170.5
7. GREG TAYLOR – STARTS 28 POINTS 159
8. JEREMIE FRIMPONG – STARTS 26 POINTS 156
9. MOI ELYOUNOUSSI – STARTS 31 POINTS 154.5
10. SCOTT BAIN – STARTS 24 POINTS 150
11. VASILIS BARKAS – STARTS 21 POINTS 134.5
12. DIEGO LAXALT – STARTS 23 POINTS 130
13. NIR BITTON – STARTS 21 POINTS 128.5
14. SHANE DUFFY – STARTS 22 POINTS 115
15. STEPHEN WELSH – STARTS 18 POINTS 106
16. CHRIS JULLIEN – STARTS 15 POINTS 91.5
17. TOM ROGIC – STARTS 14 POINTS 88
18. ISMAILA SORO – STARTS 12 POINTS 84.5
19. ALBIAN AJETI STARTS 14 POINTS 75.5
20. JONJOE KENNY – STARTS 13 POINTS 75
21. OLIVIER NTCHAM – STARTS 13 POINTS 73.5
22. JAMES FORREST – STARTS 12 POINTS 66.5
23. LEIGH GRIFFITHS – STARTS 9 POINTS 49
24. HATEM ELHAMED – STARTS 10 POINTS 44.5
25. CONOR HAZARD – STARTS 7 POINTS 42
26. PATRYK KLIMALA – STARTS 5 POINTS 27.5
27. ANTHONY RALSTON – STARTS 1 POINTS 7
28. MIKEY JOHNSTON – STARTS 2 POINTS 7
29. ADAM MONTGOMERY STARTS 1 POINTS 6.5
30. CAMERON HAPRER – STARTS 1 POINTS 4

PROPER INVINCIBLE, Walfrid & The Bould Bhoys and Alec McNair – Celtic’s Icicle, the new book by David Potter…

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

Comments are closed.