When Joe Hart retired from professional football at the end of last season, Celtic lost more than just an experienced goalkeeper who had operated at the very top level, they lost one of their leaders. Captain Callum McGregor, too, lost one of his trusty dressing room lieutenants. 

It appears though that with one signing, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has managed to compensate for the loss of all those qualities that Hart brought to the table, with the capture of Kasper Schmeichel.

The 37-year-old has met up with his new teammates in the USA fresh from representing Denmark at the European Championships, bringing with him a wealth of experience from a career that spanned a loan spell at Falkirk 17 years ago from Manchester City, through years in the English Premier League – and a title - at Leicester City, single seasons at Nice and Anderlecht as well as the accumulation of 105 caps for his country.

Over and above the impressive CV though, Schmeichel brings with him the same sort of personality and leadership qualities that made Hart such an integral figure at Celtic Park over his three seasons with the club.

Certainly, that is the early impression formed by club captain McGregor, who can see the seeds being planted for the sort of relationship he had with Hart already being planted in his early conversations with the new Celtic number one. “I’ve had a couple of chats with him already,” McGregor told Celtic TV. 

“He’s a really nice guy, he wants to win, and he wants to do well. He’s a vastly experienced goalkeeper, played at a really good level and he comes in with that authority and confidence about himself which is excellent. When you have football conversations there are certain things you want to hear and he’s certainly ticking all those boxes.

“It’s great for him to come in and feel so comfortable and hopefully we can build a really good, successful working relationship as well as a good personal one as well.”

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McGregor is enjoying Celtic’s trip to the States so far, with the mood in the camp helped not only by the emphatic win over DC United in their first friendly outing of the tour, but by the slick nature of the football they played so early on in their pre-season preparations.

He knows that tomorrow's match against Manchester City in North Carolina should be a huge step up, but with more of their regular first team players filtering back into the line-up, he is sure that they will be able to match up to whatever side Pep Guardiola chooses to field.

It should also, he believes, be a good gauge of where Celtic need to be for the revamped Champions League when the new-look league phase kicks off in September. “It was great, obviously, to go and see somewhere that we haven’t seen before as well which was nice,” he said.

“The boys did a wee bit of sightseeing when they were there [in Washington DC] so that side of it was nice, but as always, first and foremost, it’s about business in terms of the work and training. The game was excellent as well. A lot of the things that we look for in the game were there so we are in a good place in that sense.

“I thought the boys were fantastic. A lot of the football was really slick. I thought the game was excellent so hopefully we can continue like that. We’ve got to keep building. We have two tough games coming up against big clubs. I know it’s early on but that’s the level in terms of Champions League and European competition. It’ll be a nice test for us early on to see where we’re at in terms of playing our style against another attacking style. 

“We want to hit the ground running for the league campaign and the cup competitions that are coming so it’s important that we continue to build.”

Another aspect of the trip to the States that McGregor is enjoying is seeing the global reach that the club enjoys, and he wasn’t in the least bit surprised to see the huge support they had behind them when they played in Washington DC. “Everyone who plays for Celtic will tell you that the support is unbelievable,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter where you go in the world, you’ll find somebody with a Celtic jersey. Everywhere you go, there are Celtic jerseys. It shows you the gravitas the club has got. They don’t get to watch a lot of games live so it’s important that while we’re here, we try and give the best of ourselves.

“It’s been a brilliant tour so far and obviously we want to keep ramping it up now and making sure the game-time and training is spot on.”