'Looking within building': Callum McGregor responds to Celtic title questions amid prospect of huge milestone this weekend

Celtic captain Callum McGregor maintains the club’s title prospects are not a topic for discussion among Ange Postecoglou’s squad – despite the tantalising prospect on offer to them at the weekend.

Celtic captain Callum McGregor says there is too much football to be played to read anything into the possibilities his team can top of the cinch Premiership on Saturday. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Four straight cinch Premiership wins that culminated in the bewitching first-half display to secure a 3-1 win away to Hibs in midweek means Celtic will go top of the table on Saturday should they take full points at home to Livingston. Champions Rangers, currently two points ahead of Celtic, aren’t in action until they travel to Motherwell on Sunday. However, the significance of the leadership changing hands for even one day is reflected in the fact Celtic haven’t topped the pile in Scottish football since the very first game of last season, all of 15 months ago. Indeed, at the 12-game mark a year ago that will be reached by Celtic this weekend, they were nine points behind Rangers, having played two games fewer.

McGregor, bidding for a seventh league winners’ medal, is adamant there are too many points still to be contested to be projecting the title race outcome on current trends. “It’s still early doors,” the Celtic midfielder said. “We were probably on the receiving end of those questions a couple of weeks ago before the international break. Now you see how quickly it can turn. So, by no means do we start to look at the end game. It’s only a quarter through the season, so there’s so much more football to be played and the good thing about this team is that I still think there’s improvement in it as well. We keep putting those demands on each other. And, again, I think you saw the fruits of that against Hibs.

“I don’t think [it matters who is top right now]. We just look at ourselves and we’re in a position that shows what we’ve done since we came back from the international break. We look at our fixtures, and approach every game trying to get maximum points and get better. This is a completely new team and we’re still just finding out how good we can be. We’re not looking elsewhere, we’re just looking within the building, trying to push each other every day.”

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