Brendan Rodgers relieved he failed in bid to sign Celtic's Callum McGregor for Leicester

In Callum McGregor, Celtic are led by a captain easily talented enough to thrive for a top six club in the English Premier League, returning manager Brendan Rodgers has insisted.

And the Irishman confesses that this would not be the case had he been successful in prising the midfielder away from the club in the summer of 2019, months after he had had been lambasted by the Celtic support over leaving for Leicester City in the February. Rodgers stated this week that a lunch with McGregor near his Mallorca holiday home proved instrumental in his agreeing to take the Celtic reins for a second time, the 50-year-old sold on playmaker’s pledge he would be inheriting a young, hungry squad intent on pushing on. The situation that would have been altogether different were Rodgers not rebuffed in his bid to add McGregor to the Leicester ranks, and place him in a domain where he has absolutely no doubts the Scotland mainstay would have been able to mix it in the most exalted company.

“I was keen to get him [four years ago] and at the time you had Callum and Kieran [Tierney],” he said of Celtic home-grown assets. “Certainly whichever one went then the other one was never going to get away. Obviously Kieran was the one who left [in moving to Arsenal for £25m]. Callum for me was someone who was perfect for the Premier League. He could come in and impose how I wanted to play and understand how I wanted to work, could play in different positions. He’s tactically brilliant. But I’m really glad he stayed now…I’m very happy he’s the captain.

“What my experiences of both leagues tell me is people talk about Broony [former Celtic captain Scott Brown, and] that he’d never cope in the Prem - he’d have played in a top six team in the Premier League and Callum is the same. They stay here, their happiness is here. Sometimes it’s different to coaches because from a coaching perspective it’s the challenge of working against top coaches and top teams. For him he’s really happy here and really progressed in my first time. He’s continued to progress and now he’s so important for his club and his country. For me he could fit into any of those top teams because he can play football.”