Celtic star Callum McGregor has one eye on future coaching career

Midfielder studying his old training sessions to develop his knowledge
Celtic midfielder Callum McGregor is only 26 but is already looking towards a future coaching career. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS GroupCeltic midfielder Callum McGregor is only 26 but is already looking towards a future coaching career. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS Group
Celtic midfielder Callum McGregor is only 26 but is already looking towards a future coaching career. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS Group

The Covid-19 lockdown has provided Callum McGregor with the opportunity to delve into all his yesteryears… as a means of planning for his tomorrows. The Celtic midfielder has bought himself a new laptop during isolation, and is deploying it to develop his coaching mindset. The thoughtful Scotland international may only be 26 but has a desire to establish a new career within the game when his playing days are over.

“I have started collecting all the information from the last four years of my career,” he said, a period that notably begins with Brendan Rodgers’ arrival at the Scottish champions. “I am looking at training sessions and coaching ideas. I have the time right now, so I felt it would be good to do that.

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“I have taken in a lot of information in the last few years and I am hoping to put it all in a document. I am just trying to keep my mind busy with different things. Coaching probably is something I will look 
to get into one day as I like the tactical side of football.

“I like thinking about players’ positions and how the team functions within certain systems. I have had a lot of good information over the years and I want to try and take as much of that in as possible. If I can process it all, I can then learn how to implement it. That’s a long way away, I am totally focused on my playing career, but during a period like this I want to take the chance to frame it all in my mind.”

Frames within his home are assisting his ability to stay on top of his fitness. His locale doesn’t have many areas to exercise outside, but timely modifications to his abode compensate for that fact.

“I now have a gym in my house. It was quite fortunate timing as it got put in just two days before football was called off,” McGregor said. “I decided to do it to help with my recovery-based work, as that’s important when you are playing three games a week.

“I got the flooring down and got some nice equipment that does all the stuff I do in the Lennoxtown gym. I’ve got a rowing machine, a treadmill and a Keiser bike, so I had everything there. My plan was just to use that for recovery but it’s now come in handy. It was put in on the Thursday that week and by the Friday, everything had been suspended. So it was good timing and it’s been pretty useful over the last six weeks.”

McGregor has been a footballing hamster on the game’s treadmill in averaging 60-plus games a season in recent years. The break offers him a rest period that he says will see “guys covering 15km in games” when football returns such will be their eagerness to get going again.

That won’t be any time soon. The inevitability that the Premiership campaign will be called with Celtic named champions for a record-equalling ninth straight title is unfortunate, McGregor concedes, but hardly registers in this global pandemic. “It’s a horrendous situation that everyone is facing right now,” he said. “There is a bigger picture out there and everyone’s health and safety is obviously the main priority.”

McGregor won’t see a title not won on the pitch cheapened in any way because he considers that ostensibly it was. For the only consideration for the Celtic squad when going into the 15 March derby at Ibrox that was never played was how much they could increase their winning margin from the 13-point lead they then held.

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“Considering the form and attitude of the players, we feel there was even more to come from us. But if the league season has to be called at this point, I feel we would be deserved champions,” he said. “Ideally the players and everyone at the club wants to finish the season on the pitch. We want to play the games as we were on fire in the second half of the season.

“We were galvanised after Dubai and you could see that winning mentality come to the fore. We were beating teams 4-0 and 5-0, and everyone was in such a good vein of form. It would take a monumental
collapse from our side of things for us to throw it away. So I don’t think anyone could grudge us.”

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