ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE
We know we’ve not been as good as last season but we have already won a trophy, we are eight points clear in the league and we are in the Europa League after Christmas, says McGregor
CALLUM McGregor believes talk of a drop-off in Celtic standards needs some context.
Thursday’s interim financial results show the club’s revenue is £40million higher than it was at the same point of Ronny Deila’s last season.
Yet the current on-field haul of 60 points from 26 games is less than in any of the Deila campaigns. The lowest return in five years.
This time last season, Celtic were 16 points better off in the SPFL Premiership.
Yet that tally came in the midst of their most successful campaign in 50 years.
A levelling off is not only understandable, claimed McGregor yesterday, but inevitable.
‘I think when you do what we did last season, then everybody expects you to do the same,’ said the 24-year-old midfielder. ‘It is just human nature.
‘A lot of the time last season we were making it look easy when really it’s not.
‘You look at some of the days we had then. Everybody was at their peak, everybody was performing at their maximum. We also had luck in the games.
‘Certain bits of the game went for us. Everything just seemed to come together as a perfect season.’
To suggest Celtic’s current campaign is falling off a cliff would be an exaggeration.
Partick Thistle visit Parkhead in a televised fifth-round Scottish Cup tie this lunchtime.
Despite a midweek defeat to Rangers, Thistle have shown signs of recovery of late.
Yet the bookmakers odds leave no doubt over which team are favourites to reach the quarter-finals.
‘This season, we have a trophy, we are eight points clear, we are in the Europa League after Christmas,’ added McGregor.
‘If you take that as its own season, then it’s a great season as well. It’s important for us not to get too down or too disheartened with anybody who is trying to criticise us. We know exactly what we’re doing and we know what the goal is. We just have to brush that off (the criticism) and keep going.’
The matches against Hearts in December (a 4-0 defeat) and then Kilmarnock (a 1-0 loss) last weekend have forced Celtic supporters to reacquaint themselves with an old sensation. Domestic defeat.
Spoiled by a level of success which would have been unimaginable in the 1990s, some cope with it better than others. Some find it hard to cope at all, yet McGregor explained: ‘It is impossible to do what we did last season again, an unbeaten Treble. It was a perfect season.
‘If you disregard that and look at this season on its own, then it has still been a great season.
‘In football, you will always get people who are not happy with what you’re doing. That is just part and parcel of it.
‘But, as a group in the dressing room, we know exactly what we’re doing and we are trying to progress.’
Overshadowing today’s Scottish Cup tie is the looming spectre of a red menace.
Russia’s Zenit St Petersburg, currently sitting in second place in the Russian Premier League, are in Glasgow for a Europa League last-32 tie on Thursday.
‘That was the goal for us at the start of the season, to try to progress in some way in Europe,’ said McGregor. ‘We have got to this stage in the Europa League and we have a great tie.
‘We know what they’re all about. We know that they are a great side and that it will be tough for us.
‘We will be looking after the game at the weekend first and then we will be fully focused on that one.’
Defenders Mikael Lustig and Kristoffer Ajer along with winger Patrick Roberts could all return from injury today as the Parkhead side look to recover from a lacklustre defeat to Kilmarnock on a contentious artificial surface at Rugby Park.
‘It’s important for us to get back to winning ways after last week,’ insisted McGregor.
‘The Scottish Cup is a big competition for us and we want to do well in it.’
For Celtic, this has been an unusual week. Outwith international weeks and winter breaks, it was the squad’s first midweek off since before the Champions League qualifier with Rosenborg last summer.
Having dropped out of Brendan Rodgers’ starting eleven in the last two games, McGregor would rather avoid an extensive rest.
‘You’ve got to be determined to get back in — you don’t just sit there and say you’re happy for other boys to play,’ he said.
‘Being a footballer, you want to play in every game and to play as many times as you can.
‘So it’s a fine line between sitting there ready to go and sitting there saying it’s fine to let the other boys play. Obviously, you don’t want to do that.
‘You just need to make sure that you are right when you do go back in.’
It’s certainly too soon to start knocking on the manager’s door, even if McGregor felt that way inclined. ‘You’ve got to trust the manager and the other boys have been good at that as well — no-one has been in asking questions,’ he revealed.
‘We have a great trust between the players and the manager.
‘So when you’re out of the team, you know it’s just a matter of time before you get back in and you’ve got to be working hard every day to show him you’re ready to play.
‘The manager speaks to the players and that’s one of the great things about him.
‘He does it on a daily basis and, whether it’s just a two-minute chat or whatever, you always know where you stand.
‘He’ll tell you whatever reason he’s got for pulling you out and then tells you to get back in.
‘It’s communication, he’s always talking to the players and everyone knows exactly what is required.’