“First time for everything,” says Calmac but nothing up here surprises Brendan

In partnership with

The Celtic Star

·13 September 2024

“First time for everything,” says Calmac but nothing up here surprises Brendan

Celtic captain Callum McGregor today was named as the Scottish Premiership Player of the Month for August earlier today and remarkably this was the first time ever that the Celtic captain has ever received the award…

Celtic v theRangers – Scottish Premiership – Callum McGregor celebrates following the William Hill Premiership match at Celtic Park on Sunday September 1, 2024. Photo Steve Welsh

Callum had a laugh about that before his manager Brendan Rodgers tellingly noted that nothing up here surprises him. You know exactly what he means with that cutting response. Here’s how the Celtic captain’s media conference went earlier today ahead of tomorrow’s Celtic v Hearts encounter in the Scottish Premiership…

OneFootball Videos

Q: Is this your first-ever Player of the Month award? Is that right?

Callum McGregor: “I think so. There’s a first time for everything.”

Q: Does that mean you need to get in among the goals to get that recognition?

Callum McGregor: “I think that might be the story of the month. I think if you score goals generally it’s those boys who take the headlines. We have started great but you never get there without your teammates. I have to say a big thank you to them and it is a reward for everyone because they have been so good.”

Q: How do you feel about your own start to the season?

Callum McGregor: “It’s been good. When you need to get goals then scoring the types of goals that I have done is nice as well. It will always attract other attention. I say it pretty much every time I am interviewed it is about the team, how the team are functioning and how we look as a unit. I am really happy and pleased with how we have started the season but we know we are only a month in and we need to continue to keep pushing.”

Q: How strange was the international break this time then?

Callum McGregor: “It was fairly different from what I have been used to but it was nice to get some downtime at the end of the week. That enabled me to come back and refresh and be ready to go again.”

Celtic v theRangers – Callum McGregor celebrates after the match at Celtic Park on Sunday September 1, 2024. Photo Andrew Milligan

Q: Did you manage to watch Scotland?

Callum McGregor: “I watched a little bit. I was trying to switch off, as you would, I missed the first half-an-hour of the Poland game and then watched the rest of that. The boys did well and they were unlucky not to pick up some points. It was a really good performance and they can be proud of that as well.”

Q: Is this where we see the start of what the decision is meant to achieve for you? That is getting the opportunity to put your feet up and recharge even though it is early in the season.

Callum McGregor: “Yes, of course. There is a mental side to the break as well. You just chunk them up into little four-week blocks and give us the absolute maximum that you can and then you will get a little bit of recovery time to go again and come back refreshed. That’s the plan and hopefully, it goes that way.”

Celtic v theRangers – Callum McGregor celebrates scoring the third Celtic goal of the game during the Scottish Premiership match at Celtic Park, Sunday September 1, 2024. Photo Steve Welsh

Q: Do you feel refreshed?

Callum McGregor: “Not so much already because we have just started because the time in the summer was enough. It is always nice to get two or three days off. You can go ten or eleven months of the year and you don’t get two or three days off in a row. It was nice to have that and take the edge off a wee bit.”

Q: How important is it that you continue the momentum that you built up against (the)Rangers and that you snap right back into it?

Callum McGregor: “Of course, that is always the message when everybody comes back from international duty and they have been playing in different styles, playing with different players, so when we get everybody back into the building we try and refocus in terms of the ideas that we want and the way we want the game to be played. These last couple of days have been vital in terms of trying to reprogramme everybody. The team has good momentum and we have the next little block of six games coming up. We will take them one at a time but hopefully, we can get the performance levels and the results to match what we did at the start of the season.”

Celtic v theRangers – Callum McGregor scores Celtic’s third goal during the match at Celtic Park on Sunday September 1, 2024. Photo Steve Welsh

Q: How important is the next block of games as you have Europe in among those fixtures as well? It is going to take a collective effort as you have three competitions within those next six games and it is going to be tough, isn’t it?

Callum McGregor: “Yes. That is why the gaffer is trying to build a strong squad so that everybody can come in and play their part. For sure, over the next month, we will need everybody. We want to challenge strongly in all competitions and we want to be there or thereabouts so we will need everybody.”

Here’s Callum McGregor’s Media Conference…

COMING SOON ON CELTIC STAR BOOKS…CELTIC IN THE THIRTIES, VOL 1&2 BY MATT CORR…

The Celtic Pools Weekly Lottery is still only £1 each week and you could win up to £25,000! All net proceeds donated to the Celtic Academy. Join today and you will receive this Champions League Bobble Hat!