Callum McGregor feels there are shades of the Invincibles about Celtic’s ‘special’ crop of talent.
The Parkhead captain and his team-mates are storming towards a world-record eighth domestic treble after reaching the Scottish Cup final with victory over Rangers on Sunday. They will face Inverness Caledonian Thistle on June 3, by which time they will have surely been crowned Premiership champions for a second consecutive year.
McGregor was part of the Celtic side which won all three major competitions with losing a single match. And while that particular record is out of reach this season, the 29-year-old says the calibre of player and strength of character in the dressing room recalls that of 2016/17.
“There are aspects of that,” he said. “Just the way it feels. Sometimes you get a feeling as a player that you have special guys in there with you. And these things only happen when you have special people around you, giving everything to the cause.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do between now and then. But we should take a lot of confidence from last Sunday and another big game when we’ve managed to get the job done.
“If you manage to do it [the treble], it’s a combination of being almost perfect in the big games. You know how difficult that is throughout the season.
“You’ve seen a lot of good teams not do it, so our focus is just to take each day as it comes.
“We have four or five weeks that can be really exciting and if we apply ourselves properly and make the right sacrifices then we’re hoping to get as many rewards as we can.”
Celtic can clinch the league championship by beating Hearts at Tynecastle on Sunday, the same venue at which the 2017 title was won. McGregor and James Forrest are the only two remaining players from that day, and the midfielder is determined to put on a repeat performance.
“I’m probably one of only a couple left who played in that game,” he said. “This a new group. And we have spoken about this a lot – we want to write our own history as a group of players, along with the management team.
“So it’s a case of back to work and our full focus will be on getting a positive result at the weekend and obviously wrapping up the league.”
