Celtic star lifts lid on mindset coach conversations and why he is having to 'rein himself in'

Luke McCowan is living the dream of every Celtic supporter but his ambition does not start and end with simply pulling on the green and white jersey.

The 26-year-old's joy at completing a £1million move from Dundee on the final day of the summer transfer window was evident as he beamed for the cameras during his Celtic Park unveiling. But since then it has been down to serious business as McCowan sets about establishing himself not only as a squad player but a regular starter in Brendan Rodgers' side.

Six impressive cameos off the bench were finally rewarded with a first Celtic start in the 3-0 win over Motherwell on Sunday, owing to an injury to captain Callum McGregor. Safe to say McCowan took his chance, scoring the opener, a chance he created for himself, in a bright and industrious display across his 75 minutes on the park. But there is no sense of mission accomplished for the Ayr United youth product. No getting carried away at making his full debut for his boyhood heroes at Fir Park. McCowan stressed that he must keep his feet on the ground and continue to prove himself to get where he wants to be.

"You’ve got to stay calm," McCowan said. "It’s something I want to be doing. It’s not as if I’ve won the lottery to get a start. You've got to work hard to get that. I think I was saying that to my mindset coach, it was just a case of being frustrated about not playing and it means you're doing something well. And I was. And then to get the nod to start shows the manager's got a bit of trust in me and I kind of need to go and prove that I deserve a start and deserve to be playing. I think I did well enough to do that on Sunday."

Luke McCowan in action during his first start for Celtic in the 3-0 win over Motherwell at Fir Park. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group) | SNS Group

The mindset coach McCowan refers to is someone who has followed the player from Dundee. A move to Celtic was not the time to part company with a vital support network. "I just worked with him for maybe six months at Dundee before I came here, and I knew that I was going to need to keep him, because it's going to be a different kind of a situation. So me and him speak all the time. Week in week out we're talking and it's just kind of having a conversation with your dad or your uncle, but a lot more professional about it and he's been really good for me.

"It's a game of football at the end of the day, I know I've worked hard to get here. I've been told by numerous people at the club that once you're here it's about showing you deserve to be here and I'm not going to get all excited. Obviously when you come here as a fan, everybody can hype it up and make it a lot more than what it is, but I've got to go there and perform, it's about getting three points and doing that game by game. I’ve got to show that, so that's my kind of job.

"It's like any other promotion in a job isn't it, you get excited when you first get there, but as soon as you're there you can't just put the tools down and stop doing it, you need to go and graft away and put the hard work in, get myself fitter, get myself in the team and make impacts, not just run about and make a couple of passes. It's about scoring goals and getting assists, so I need to try and do that."

Luke McCowan scores Celtic's opener in the 3-0 win over Motherwell at Fir Park, on October 27, 2024. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group) | SNS Group

McCowan left Dundee as a leader of men. He captained the Dens Park side to a top six finish last season but is now the one being led in a dressing room full of title winners. In time he hopes to be able to bring his leadership qualities to Celtic but for now the focus is on learning from the likes of skipper McGregor, and Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Greg Taylor, who have all deputised on armband duties at points during their Parkhead careers.

"I think there's a lot of boys, even boys that aren't starting, Greg and Cam who were on the bench, big voices in the changing room," McCowan said. "I think I just need to bide my time with that, I'm not going to go in there shouting and bawling. These guys are league winners, I need to learn off them first and then through that I'll find my voice.

"I need to rein myself in, I need to bide my time. As I said there there's league winners in the changing room, I can't go in and start demanding things, they've already put a demand on themselves, they're demanding off me now.

"So I'll find my voice through time. There's no rush to it, we've got an amazing captain, an amazing manager whose voice is huge in there, but as I said there's about 11 players in there that have good voices and they just speak every day and speak to me as well and show me what I need to do within the game and within the team.

"But obviously on the pitch you want to try and help them as much, but again it's a different kind of game for me. Second balls and doing the channel runs is where I was at, but now it's about possession-based football, it's about winning the ball back as quickly as we can and I'm learning that week by week and games like Sunday and performances like Sunday show that I'm learning and being a bit of a sponge and going for that."