CALLUM McGREGOR is one of those Celtic stalwarts who is lucky if he gets even a fortnight away from playing football. Last summer Scotland had a Euro qualifier in Belgium well into June and within ten days Celtic were back for the pre-season training with the urgent matter of Champions League qualification on the agenda.

Over the past few years the team has failed to make it through these rounds – eight games, at all corners of what UEFA call ‘Europe’ and unfortunately Celtic slipped on banana skins against lesser quality sides AEK Athens and Cluj over the past two seasons, shooting themselves in the foot on each occasion. That tendency continued in the knockout stages of the Europa League this year – after beating Lazio home and away in the group stages Celtic outplayed Copenhagen in the first half of the away tie and could have been three goals ahead at the interval. Somehow that game was drawn and remarkably the Danish Champions were able to manufacture a victory at Celtic Park to go through to the last 16 where the 2019/20 competition stalled due to Covid-19.

AEK Athens draw at Celtic Park while Cluj and Copenhagen won in the East End of Glasgow. That is a worrying statistic that needs fixing.

“We do want to right the wrongs of what happened against Cluj last season,” Callum said, to the media, as reported by Glasgow Times. “It was a crazy game of football really. There were so many ups and downs over the 90 minutes.

“At one point in the game we looked like scoring every time we went up the pitch. But then in the last 20 minutes, Cluj pretty much did that and we were out. It was a crazy night and sometimes in football these things happen.

“As players you remember low points like that and you want to rectify them when you get the chance. The aim is to get the club back into the Champions League as that’s where we feel we should be. With the stature of Celtic, we feel that’s the tournament we should be competing in.

“We all know how difficult it is to get there with the four qualifying rounds and in knockout football anything can happen. But we feel we are a good enough club, with good enough players, to be there.

“When you qualify and get the rewards of a Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Man City coming to Celtic Park, it’s a great feeling. We all want to be playing in the Champions League and hopefully we can get the club back there.”

“The two Lazio wins were the standout results and performances,” he said. “But in terms of the entire group campaign, we were absolutely excellent. We went to France to play Rennes and they were flying at the time. We got a point and probably deserved more on the night.

“We got revenge on Cluj a little bit when they came back to Celtic Park and also beat Rennes at home. There were some really good performances in there.

“Against Copenhagen, we should have been out of sight in the first half of the first game over there. But that was another learning curve for the players – individually and collectively.

“Hopefully we can take those experiences into the new European campaign and build from it. At that level, you need to be ruthless and take your chances. We learned that this year. Hopefully we can rectify the mistakes, repeat all the positive parts of our performances and put a good run together.”

It’s still unclear how and when and in what format the qualifiers will begin for this season’s Champions League. UEFA are still trying to figure out how to bring this season’s tournament to a conclusion with talk of an eight team knockout event happening in Lisbon in the summer, presumably with something similar happening for the Europa League – the Rangers are still technically still involved having lost the home leg 3-1 to Bayer Leverkusen with the return leg in Germany in the round of 16 still to be played.

“We don’t know when the qualifiers will start, but it looks like we will get a decent period for pre-season this year,” McGregor said. “The preparation time will hopefully be better than normal because there is always a quick turnaround. You finish one season, have international games and then you are straight back into qualifiers after a couple of weeks.

“They are such massive games and it will be good to get the chance to prepare together as a team. We will all be starting at the same point this pre-season, people won’t be coming back in stages because of internationals. So hopefully that puts us in a strong position to prepare physically, mentally and tactically for the qualifiers.”

Callum McGregor in one of four shortlisted players in The Celtic Star Player of the Year Award (vote below). We’re keeping this open aiming to reach 10,000 supporter votes and we’re closing in on that target. Unlike some other polls you can only vote once. The three other players shortlisted are Odsonne Edouard, Scott Brown and Fraser Forster and all four are going to be vital if Celtic are to make it through to the Group stages of the Champions League this season.

Given the financial hit the club will take from the Covid-19 lockdown, the return of £30m plus Champions League income would come in very handy indeed.