Callum McGregor – You’ve dropped the ball on that one, Phil

Philippe Clement has been in the news with his comments about the Celtic captain, Callum McGregor, ahead of this weekend’s Glasgow Derby match at Ibrox.

IT WAS OFFSIDE, PHIL – YOU GOT PUMPED!

The Belgian coach has refuted the suggestion that Callum dominated his side throughout the duration of the last meeting at Celtic Park back in December.

It’s total revisionism from theRangers manager, as the whole footballing universe knows these truths are self-evident if you’d watched the game before the New Year in Glasgow. McGregor did what he’s always done; dictated the pace and tempo of the game from deep in midfield and made the Govan side’s midfielders look bang average as a result.

You might not like it, Phil, but those are the facts.

Lundstrum, Cantwell, Lawrence, Jack and any others you might put forward as worthy challengers can’t hold a candle to a fit and firing Cal Mac. He’s proven it time and time again when these fixtures come about on the calendar for the Hoops, and there’s no denying if he’s fit and available for Sunday, it puts Celtic in such a strong position to emerge victorious from the cauldron of noise which will greet the players come lunchtime.

That mob are terrified of McGregor and it’s with good reason too; the last game at Ibrox, you know, the one that everybody and their granny thought we would come a cropper at the hands of the mighty Rangers, Callum transformed into Andrea Pirlo that day and totally breezed through the match. It must still haunt them that performance as he dropped back into the quarter-back role and just sprayed the ball about like a water feature. It was a footballing lesson, the likes of which Paul McStay would have been proud of.

ROTTERDAM – Callum McGregor of Celtic FC during the UEFA Champions League match between Feyenoord and Celtic FC at Feyenoord Stadium de Kuip on September 19, 2023. Photo Jeroen Putmans

Clement doesn’t come across anywhere near as bad as mouthy Mick Beale, however, when you say your a football man and a high-level operator that has won titles in Belgium and managed AS Monaco, it really does damage to your reputation when you allow sour grapes to distort and cloud your judgement. TheRangers manager knows how important McGregor is and also knows fine well his team were dominated twice already this season by the Scotland international. He’s just trying to deflect. Regardless, it just makes him sound stupid.

You’ve dropped the ball on that one, Phil.

Paul Gillespie

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About Author

I'm a Garngad Bhoy through and through. My first ever Celtic game was a friendly against Italian side Parma at Celtic Park, in 2002. Currently a student of English Literature and Education at the University of Strathclyde for my sins. Favourite game would be a toss up between beating Manchester United with that Naka freekick, or the game against the Oldco when Hesselink scored in the dying seconds. I'm still convinced Cal Mac is wasted playing that far back.

2 Comments

  1. That game is history.
    We need every player preforming to the best of their ability on Sunday.
    Hail Hail.

  2. Didn’t take that skunk pepe le poo too long to get into the scum culture of total lies and bullshit.
    Best 2 games Calmac has had all season for ourselves, against the scum, and 2 victories?
    The decision upon Calmac tomorrow, will possibly be decided by just how many minutes we will be able to get from him?
    60 minutes plus, no doubt he will start imo?
    Less than 30 minutes then a possible replacement for Hatate?
    The Calmac factor should be a massive boost for ourselves, even if it remains unclear as to what potential role Calmac could be used in yet?
    Regardless, I still don’t believe Rodgers has to take any unnecessary risks regarding calmac either imo?
    Still have enough within the midfield areas to dominant the scum yet again, and hopefully pepe le poo remains so blind to see it yet again imo?