Callum McGregor has revealed how his token five day holiday turned into unofficial Celtic business.
Soon after the Hampden cheers faded away for the Treble winners Mallorca seemed to be the place to be as attention switched from Ange Postecoglou to Brendan Rodgers.
Once it became known that Michael Nicholson has visited the Irishman at his home in Santa Ponsa the jigsaw pieces started to fall into place with Enzo Maresca and Kjetil Knutsen dropping out of contention.
Odin Thiago Holm managed to meet up with his next manager while he enjoyed a few days of sun in Mallorca but there was more significant contact that only came to light when Rodgers was introduced at Celtic Park as Postecoglou’s successor.
Rodgers mentioned how he had met up with McGregor to discuss the club, speaking to The Sun the Celtic skipper put more meat on the bones of their Balearic render-vous.
McGregor said: “It was when I was on holiday for around five days before I met up with the Scotland squad.
“I flew out to Majorca, and completely randomly, things started to unfold at Celtic with Ange moving on. I was just taking a few days to chill out.
“I then got a message from the manager asking how I was and if we could catch up.
“He’d heard I was out there — he’s clearly got spies everywhere. So it shows you never go under the radar for long!
“He was staying around 30 minutes away from me. We just met at my hotel and it was easy enough for me. Brendan came to my hotel and we just stayed and had a bit of lunch.
“We were just in the restaurant so I was actually surprised nothing came out about us meeting at that point. We were just lucky to get a wee bit of privacy to have a chat.
“The hotel was nice and private. But it stayed under the radar, probably for as long as it needed to, until he told everybody about it!
“No, we obviously had a great relationship the last time he was here, and we kept in touch and remained pretty close. Even during his time at Leicester we stayed in contact.
“So I met Brendan, we had a bit of lunch, and quickly got talking about the club. We then started delving into some serious chat, and that’s when I realised that this could happen.
“I had to give an honest assessment on where I felt things were at. And he was the same. We sat there together for almost three hours, just talking football and speaking about Celtic and different things. I think we both left the chat in a really good place.
“We got more and more serious as the chat progressed, and really delved into how we felt things were at the club.
“I know these things take time to be put together, but we both had a really good feeling about it at the meeting.
“It was then down to the guys at Celtic to do the work from there. As the days progressed the chat was getting more and more serious about him coming back.”
Back in 2016 McGregor’s future was far from certain at Celtic, after breaking through at the start of the 2014/15 season under Ronny Deila his form and appearances had started to drift.
Scott Brown got the dinner with Brendan treatment with Stefan Johansen, Nir Bitton and Tom Rogic initially ahead of McGregor for a place in the team alongside the skipper.
By the time that winter came around and the Betfred Cup Final victory over Aberdeen McGregor had played his way into the side, becoming more and more influential.
Now with over 400 Celtic appearances he is one of the most decorated players in the club’s history, the only player to have been in at the sharp end of five treble successes.
Despite the heavy toll of matches and increasingly diminishing summer breaks McGregor still leads Celtic from the front by example with his new five year contract indicating the faith that both the manager and club have in the Academy midfielder.
