Callum McGregor believes that the appointment of Brendan Rodgers as Celtic manager is a statement of intent.
On June 3 the midfielder captained Celtic to victory over Inverness Caley Thistle in the final of the Scottish Cup in Ange Postecoglou’s final match as manager.
McGregor was back at Hampden on June 20 for Scotland with a ‘new’ man in charge at his club, the boss that delivered the first seven trophies of the current run that stands at 17 trophy wins out of 21.
Back in the summer of 2016 McGregor’s place at Celtic was far from secure, Rodgers started out with Scott Brown and Nir Bitton as his first pick central midfielders.
When the hoops laid down a marker with a 5-1 victory in the September Glasgow Derby McGregor had to wait until the 74th minute to get involved, coming off the bench 20 minutes after Stuart Armstrong had replaced Tom Rogic.
Rodgers first encountered McGregor during a League Cup tie between Liverpool and Notts County, gradually the playing time increased till he established his place with commanding performances in the Glasgow Derby highlighted by goals at Hampden and Ibrox.
It isn’t quite the band getting back together but faced with some uncertainty the club captain is very pleased to know all about the in-coming manager.
Obviously the guys at the top of the club have been working really hard and relentlessly to make this happen.
You become aware of it at the start of last week and there’s been a lot of chat, and a lot of good work done to get it over the line.
It’s great that we’ve managed to get him back and it’s obviously a really positive step for the club. You know it’s a real statement of intent.
The guys that were here the last time really enjoyed working with him and under him, it was a really successful period.
But just in terms of him coming back in, it’s important that we draw that line and it’s now about what we can achieve together moving forward for this new group as well.
He’s a top-level manager, his preparation and detail towards every single game, every single training session, every moment that he’s in the building he’s constantly thinking about football and how to make the club better, how to make the team better.
And on top of that, how to make the individuals within the team better as well, and he’s had a brilliant track record with that everywhere he’s been.
So the boys are really excited to work with him on a close level along with the guys who are still here at the club.
They are really important coaches and I believe that’ll be a really good coaching team together and, like I said, it’s now about getting to work and trying to achieve what we can as a group.
