‘You be the next one, you’re sitting here with me and I think you can do it,’ Tommy Burns

CALLUM McGREGOR captained Celtic for the first time on Sunday. He spoke to Celtic TV about this achievement and singled out two Celts who have had a huge influence on his Celtic journey from school boy to captain. Callum was speaking to Celtic TV, here are the highlights…

CALLUM McGREGROR ON TOMMY BURNS

Tommy Burns guided Callum through his early years at Celtic.

“Tommy Burns was massive in my younger part of my Celtic career.

“He was always speaking to me, coming down to training, pulling me aside saying I had a great chance.

“He would speak to my mum and dad pretty regularly as well and he would say ‘we think he’s going to be the next one but you need to go prove it’.

“I think we had a boy in from Inter Milan who had just signed, I was 13 and I think he was 16 or 17 and they were saying he’s the next one and Tommy said to me ‘you be the next one, you’re sitting here with me and I think you can do it’.

“I can remember the full conversation to this day and it will stay with me forever. I think ever since then it’s just stuck in my mind that I’m going to be the next one no matter what it takes.

“He said ‘you’ve got great potential but you need to show us that you’re going to be the one’.”

CALMAC ON RONNY DEILA

Ronny gave McGregor his debut against KR Reykjavik in the Champions League qualifiers and he re-paid the Norwegian for the faith shown in him with a late winner.

“It was massive. You go through all the years at the academy and all the teams and you get that moment when you’re told you’re playing.

“The manager at the time stuck with me. It was 0-0 and they made a substitution, I think Derk Boerrigter came on and I thought I did OK and was playing left-hand-side. He came on but I actually switched to play right-side and he took someone else off.

“It was the last couple of minutes, I managed to get the goal so that was good for him to stick with me and put that faith in me to get the goal and get the win.”

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

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