McGregor's Impact on Celtic's Future Journey

Anyone inside Celtic complacent about the future of Callum McGregor can kick that notion into touch this morning.

Unlike many others McGregor has no burning desire to see what the football landscape is like elsewhere.

For the best part of 12 years the midfielder has been central to the successes of Celtic. Winning titles and trophies under four different manager. But none under Wilfried Nancy.

This season has been an eye-opener for McGregor and many among the Celtic support.

From the strongest position in the history of the club post 1967 opportunity knocked.

The new look Champions League is tailor-made for clubs like Celtic. Instead of continuing in the path shown by Brendan Rodgers the club opted to apply the breaks, to undermine the manager and settle for being the best of the domestic dross.

Rodgers warned, Kairat Almaty delivered. The decline has been stark. Celtic April 2026 bares little resemblance to the club 12 months ago.

A massive rebuild is required this summer. There is absolutely no sign that this is even acknowledged within a club led by the underwhelming Michael Nicholson.

RODGERS SIGN POSTS HIS INTENTION

On the eve of the new season on August 1 Rodgers delivered the clearest warning about where his ambitions were compared with the club.

Like Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn hadn’t been replaced.

CEO Nicholson’s attempt at managed decline was in full flow. The board were determined to put the brakes on Rodgers’ ambitions.

The last thing that the CEO wanted was to be trying to replace a highly successful manager in the summer of 2026.

Without spelling things out completely it was easy to pick up on the frustrations of the Celtic manager.

The Scotsman reported Rodgers saying:

Dermot [Desmond, majority shareholder], Michael [Nicholson, CEO] and I had a conversation over the summer on where we’re at, and where it sits with myself and everything else. I said I’m very happy here, there’s conditions we want in to be able to improve and be better because I’m not the type of manager that’s good at maintaining anything. If there’s just something to maintain, I’m not the manager for Celtic. It will be someone else. But to build, grow, develop and push, then of course, I love being at Celtic.

There you have it. I’m not the manager for Celtic. On 27 October Rodgers resigned. He had been informed of Paul Tisdale’s plans for the January transfer window.

MCGREGOR- FIRST HAND WITNESS TO MANAGED DECLINE

McGregor loves Celtic. But he isn’t immune to the attempt to reduce quality and costs to match the ambition of finishing one point ahead of Celtic’s business partners at Ibrox.

Since July 2024 Celtic have sold Matt O’Riley, Kyogo, Kuhn and Adam Idah. The January 2026 signings added nothing to a squad badly in need of strengthening.

As well as the players sold others like Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda have ran their race at Celtic. Neither expected to be going into their fifth year in Scotland.

An increasing burden has fallen on McGregor. At the age of 32 he should be getting help to extend his playing time and career. Instead the dependency could be shortening his career.

Recent events, especially this season have pushed him towards what many thought would be unthinkable.

On Thursday he spelt out his exact feelings. His words even contained a nod towards the aims of the Celtic Fans Collective.

The Sun reports McGregor saying:

For probably half the time I’ve been here, we’ve been playing in the Champions League or been in the Europa League, which is a really good standard of football as well.

We have to continue to push and be as good as we can possibly be. I don’t want to sit here and be a Celtic captain who’s not winning anything.

I’ve been very honest with everyone in that conversation. The people inside the club know it.

If we’re not going to be the best version of Celtic then I don’t want to be the guy who’s not winning any trophies. That’s not me and not who I am.

🗣️ “I’ve made my feeling known… it’s kind of on the club.”
Callum McGregor wants to remain at Celtic as long as the club matches his ambition to be the best version of itself.
🔗 https://t.co/85Ig8hbyMe pic.twitter.com/7U2lcRaj9V
— The Celtic Way (@celticway1888) April 23, 2026

That sounds very close to what Rodgers was saying at the end of July. By end end of October he had resigned.

NO FORWARD PLANNING- THE CELTIC WAY

Whatever passes for executive leadership at Celtic probably thought that they could rely on McGregor for next season, whatever they get upto.

That isn’t the case.

Another Nancy type manager being handed half a dozen £2m project signings won’t cut it again.

McGregor has seen the best and worst of Celtic.

He can see the signs again. After Rodgers it will be a step down. How much of a drop is the big question.

McGregor could still have two seasons playing at the peak of his powers. He could be useful beyond that.

There is no sign of strategy or forward planning at Celtic.

It is more than 10 years since the Academy produced a regular first team player- Kieran Tierney.

McGregor would love to extend his Celtic honours, to be part of a team that is competitive and punching its weight in European football. Like in season 24/25 under Rodgers.

If that isn’t the plan then he could well be looking on from afar as Nicholson continues his managed decline. Racing towards the rainy days that Peter Lawwell planned for.