CALLUM McGREGOR insists Celtic are “where I want to be” as he prepares for his 13th season in the green and white hoops.
The 33-year-old captain is ready to lead the team once more into battle at home and in Europe.
McGregor said: “Yes, absolutely. Listen, this is a football club that’s been part of my life since I was eight, nine-years-old. It’s where I want to be. It’s where I want to play football.
“Ultimately, I want to keep driving everything that I possibly can to make sure this club is successful and then eventually the day that you do leave it, you want to leave it in a really good place.”
McGregor, who had been linked with a reunion alongside Brendan Roders in Saudi Arabia, is looking forward to leading out the champions at Parkhead in the Premiership opener against Dundee on Monday evening.
The Hoops performed minor miracles during a turbulent campaign to clinch their fifth successive title and add their 43rd Scottish Cup.
CROWNING GLORY…Callum McGregor carries the Premiership trophy before Celtic’s 1-0 win over St Mirren at Parkhead in last season’s opener.
Following back-to-back league defeats against Dundee and Hearts in October, the club was rocked with the sudden departure of Rodgers.
Martin O’Neill, at the age of 73, was called in to steady the ship in as interim capacity before he made way in early December for Wilfried Nancy.
The Frenchman signed a two-and-a-half year deal, but was sacked after only 33 chaotic days in which the team lost six of his eight games in charge.
O’Neill once again answered the SOS and will, of course, be in the job in a permanent basis for the forthcoming crusade.
Reflecting on the highs and lows of an extraordinary term, 33-year-old McGregor, speaking to Sky Sports, continued: “There were obviously a few circumstances that made it more challenging than perhaps it has been in the past few seasons,.
“You have to make sure when you face those challenges, you can overcome them. The group of boys and the staff who pulled the team through a really difficult season – that’s what you need to build.
“Good characters, people who are willing to go to the death for each other.
“This season, hopefully, we can do it in a bit more style, the way that we’re used to.
“Work has been going on through pre-season to make sure that happens.”
GREEN FOR GO…£11million-plus record-breaker striker Kasper Hogh is eager to get started. Image courtesy Celtic Player.
Scotland’s title kings have brought in strikers Kasper Hogh and Camilo Duran at a joint cost of around £17million for the challenges which will confront the team next month.
As well as the league starting, Celtic play their Champions League play-off first leg on August 18/19 with the return the following week.
They will be determined not to repeat last season’s fiasco when they didn’t lay a glove on Kazakhstan minnows Kairat Almaty and lost on penalty-kicks.
McGregor added: “All the teams will strengthen over the summer and we’re the same. There are a couple of good signings in the door and, hopefully, there will be some more bodies in, as well.
“We’ve signed two really good players. It’s a good sign, positive steps and that is to add to what is a really good group already. We have the makings of a really good team.
“The standard for us is trying to get to Champions League football – that’s where we want to be, it takes the club to a different level.”
First, though, there are three points up for grabs against Steven Pressley’s Tayside outfit on Monday.
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