Callum McGregor spoke to the media at Lennoxtown this afternoon ahead of the match against St Mirren on Sunday, which we now know will NOT feature Matt O’Riley as Celtic’s Player of the Year this evening is on the verge of joining Premier League side Brighton after they agreed a £30m transfer fee with Celtic.
Here’s everything that the Celtic captain had to say to the media…
“I think that the Feyenoord game on its own has been enough to give the boys the energy and belief that we are actually good enough to compete. The new format will change things slightly with the way teams play as well. There’s no reason why we can’t go and make our mark as well,” Callum McGregor
Q: How are things?
Callum McGregor: “All good, the football’s going well and I’m feeling in a good place. We just move on to the next game and try and give as good a performance as we have done since we came back for pre-season. Things are moving well and we’re just continuing to build on that as a group.”
Q: Has it sunk in that your Scotland national team chapter has closed?
Callum McGregor: “I’ve been pretty comfortable with the decision since it has been made. There was a lot of back and forth and having chats with the people that matter. Once you arrive at the decision and call them it’s done. I’ve been fine with it since then and I’m just focusing on the football. Now I just focus on Celtic.”
Q: You must be happy with the start that Celtic have made – a marker laid down?
Callum McGregor: “Everything is going well at this point in time. We know how quickly things can change, so the biggest challenge for the group is to stay on top of that and keep the hunger, keep training properly and keep everybody in a good place playing for the team. Hopefully, that will continue the performance levels and the energy levels that we’ve shown so far. The next game at the weekend is an opportunity to show that.”
Q: Is St Mirren a tough test?
Callum McGregor: “Absolutely. They’ve done great over the last couple of seasons and they always give us tough games as well. When they set up, they can set up in a couple of different ways and we generally find it more difficult to play against that. Once we get into our rhythm and flow later on in games, then we’ve been able to kill games off. We know it will be a tough game again on a tighter pitch. It is up to us to start the game properly and get the tempo going by scoring early – if we do that it would be more of a comfortable afternoon than it could be.”
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We’ll make our mark all right – as one of the worst teams in the competition! Celtic are nowhere near the quality they must be to compete at that level, especially now that the greedy Board has sold our prize asset.
This window is an utter disgrace. No disrespect to Calmac but he knows, the manager knows, we know and the board certainly know, we have no chance of making an impact without the “quality” that’s been required since Ang left. This board aren’t fit for purpose. They also know through the home ticket scheme they have most of the £200 a head money already. They have zero ambition and we can look forward to being European also rams