AS IMAGES and snapshots circulated on social media last week of a successful Celtic Foundation dinner, the first of its kind for two years due to Covid, there was something of note in the attire of Callum McGregor.
Invited onto the stage along with tracksuited team-mates Anthony Ralston and Jota, the Scotland international shunned the casual leisurewear for the more formal collar and tie. Loud and clear it said: this is your captain speaking.
Like the first player to be offered the number seven shirt following Henrik Larsson’s Celtic exit or Sir Alex Ferguson stepping down at Old Trafford, the offer of the Parkhead captaincy this summer may well have felt like something of a poisoned chalice given the manner in which Scott Brown took on the role.
This week, as Brown has parted ways with Aberdeen, it is worth considering just how much McGregor has grown into the responsibility that he took on.
Celtic, in disarray, this summer needed experience and composure. Directly that comes from the manager, who is the club figurehead, but the conduit between the coaching staff and the dressing room is the captain.
A central figure to Celtic and a ridiculously successful domestic period, it is easy to forget that McGregor was almost part of the flotsam that never surfaces from the underbelly of the club. A loan deal to Notts County – where he scored 12 league goals that season – was where he initially cut his first-team teeth.
Another manager might have viewed a driving conviction in the wee small hours less favourably than Ronny Deila did. The Norwegian manager was a sympathetic figure as he revealed standing in a post-match huddle in the aftermath of a freezing February Scottish Cup tie back in 2016 against Lowland League side East Kilbride that he had taken McGregor out of the team because of the scrutiny on him following the charge.
It was Deila whom McGregor publicly thanked when he returned a month later. Few at that point would have regarded him as captain material.
It was under Brendan Rodgers where McGregor really grew into his Celtic career, becoming a pivotal cog in a team that seemed capable of swatting all domestic competition aside. Such was the clear esteem McGregor was held in that Rodgers returned to Celtic to try to take the Scotland international to Leicester City. Had the wounds from Rodgers’ exit not been quite so raw, the likelihood is that McGregor may well have headed to the English premiership.
Given the circumstances around that summer, some players would have quietly sulked at the breaks forced on a move to the hallowed environs of the Premier League and the financial renumeration that would have gone with it.
To his credit, McGregor was fairly philosophical about it all as he spoke candidly some weeks after the news had come to light.
As Celtic have remerged this season from the disarray of last season, he has been pivotal to their rebirth under Ange Postecoglou.
It is not just the composure which he lends the position he plays or his willingness to be deployed wherever asked for the benefit of the team but also in how he has carried himself in the job as captain.
If there was a little glimpse of the pantomime villain of the previous incumbent of his role when McGregor chased down Rangers full-back Borna Barisic in the 3-0 win over Rangers last month to offer a private reflection on the Croatian’s decision-making, by and large it has been a sensible McGregor that has been the focal point of Celtic’s emergence from the shadows this season.
It was there when he urged calm and offered a reminder of the month as the team drank in the celebrations in the immediate aftermath of that win over Rangers. It was there on Sunday afternoon against Livingston when he hit the post with a penalty, using his influence to set the tone of persistence afterwards.
As Celtic look now to get over the line and reclaim a title that opens the door to the bounty of Champions League cash, it is McGregor who will be key in getting them there.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here