CALLUM McGregor would have been surprised and disappointed had the offer of a contract ex-tension not been forthcoming from Celtic given his considerable personal contribution to the success the Parkhead club enjoyed last season.
The midfielder established himself as an invaluable member of Brendan Rodgers’s side as they qualified for the Champions League, won the Ladbrokes Premiership, Betfred Cup and William Hill Scottish Cup and went undefeated domestically.
The goals he scored against Rangers in a 2-0 Scottish Cup semi-final triumph at Hampden and record 5-1 victory at Ibrox in the Premiership a week later were simply the highlights of what was an exceptional individual campaign.
Yet, the 24-year-old, who has pledged his future to the Glasgow club he grew up in Easterhouse and then Springboig supporting until 2021, still welled up as he signed his new deal at Celtic Park earlier this week.
Returning to the room where Tommy Burns had offered him his first contract many years before brought memories of the club great and the important role he had played in helping him to realise his dream of becoming a professional footballer flooding back to him.
“When I signed into the pro-youth system Brian Meehan was the head of youth, Mark Millar was the coach and Tommy Burns was overseeing it,” said McGregor.
“Tommy was a massive influence for me coming all the way through. He would be at first team training during the day then come to supervise us at six o’clock. We would still be there at 10 o’clock practising free-kicks. He wouldn’t let us go home. He was just that kind of guy, he loved football dearly.
“When I signed the new contract the other day I signed it in the little room just off the boardroom. That was the first time I had been in there since the day I sat with Tommy and my parents to sign my first pro-youth contract at the age of 13.
“Because it was the first time I had been back in the room and it was a nice feeling. I texted my mum and mentioned it to her and she said it was nice to see how far I have come in the years since. It did feel emotional.
“It’s a proud moment for me to tie my future down at the club where I have spent the bulk of my career. To come through from the age of eight means something to me. There aren’t many left from the same era and it just shows you what you can do if you work hard and have the right sup-port around you.”
Burns, the former Celtic player, manager and coach who passed away in 2008 following a long battle with skin cancer, would be proud of how his protégé has flourished during the last few years and of how he acquitted himself in the games against Rangers last season especially.
“It’s been a progression ever since I broke into the first team, step by step,” said McGregor. But I probably think of last season and the game at Ibrox when I scored against Rangers was the moment when I thought: ‘You know what, that’s me here’. Everybody begins to give you respect as a first-team player. Your team mates respect you as well.
“I have been here since I was eight-years-old. It is pretty much all I have known in terms of football. Being from the East End of Glasgow it is a massive thing for me.”
Brendan Rodgers, the manager who has been responsible for him, has raised the point that Celtic supporters have no chants about McGregor while Kieran Tierney, another to have come through the ranks from an early age, is regularly lauded in songs from the stands. The player, though, is un-perturbed by the relative lack of recognition.
“The fans are always on about Kieran,” he said. “But I am just happy to go under the radar. It doesn’t faze me.”
McGregor was disappointed not to be involved in Celtic’s opening Champions League group game against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday evening despite the record 5-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of their expensively-assembled French rivals.
The midfielder, though, is confident he will get some game time in their remaining Group B matches against Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Anderlecht in the coming months and that his side can recover from their opening loss.
“Obviously you want to play in these games, but there are plenty of matches,” he said. “There are 60 games a season so I am sure I will be playing in other games.”
“The result in Barcelona last season galvanised the group. We couldn’t affect us in terms of the domestic stuff. We knew we had a target to achieve and that’s the same this season. “
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here