Callum McGregor – You’ve dropped the ball on that one, Phil

The Belgian coach has refuted the suggestion that Callum dominated his side throughout the duration of the last meeting at Celtic Park back in December.

It’s total revisionism from theRangers manager, as the whole footballing universe knows these truths are self-evident if you’d watched the game before the New Year in Glasgow. McGregor did what he’s always done; dictated the pace and tempo of the game from deep in midfield and made the Govan side’s midfielders look bang average as a result.

You might not like it, Phil, but those are the facts.

Lundstrum, Cantwell, Lawrence, Jack and any others you might put forward as worthy challengers can’t hold a candle to a fit and firing Cal Mac. He’s proven it time and time again when these fixtures come about on the calendar for the Hoops, and there’s no denying if he’s fit and available for Sunday, it puts Celtic in such a strong position to emerge victorious from the cauldron of noise which will greet the players come lunchtime.

That mob are terrified of McGregor and it’s with good reason too; the last game at Ibrox, you know, the one that everybody and their granny thought we would come a cropper at the hands of the mighty Rangers, Callum transformed into Andrea Pirlo that day and totally breezed through the match. It must still haunt them that performance as he dropped back into the quarter-back role and just sprayed the ball about like a water feature. It was a footballing lesson, the likes of which Paul McStay would have been proud of.

Clement doesn’t come across anywhere near as bad as mouthy Mick Beale, however, when you say your a football man and a high-level operator that has won titles in Belgium and managed AS Monaco, it really does damage to your reputation when you allow sour grapes to distort and cloud your judgement. TheRangers manager knows how important McGregor is and also knows fine well his team were dominated twice already this season by the Scotland international. He’s just trying to deflect. Regardless, it just makes him sound stupid.

You’ve dropped the ball on that one, Phil.