Callum McGregor has picked up so many awards and accolades over his Celtic career he has probably had to reinforce his mantlepiece.
The Hoops captain doesn’t need to stretch too far in his home to get his hands on some kind of winners’ medal, with 23 of them in his collection and counting. But there’s one type of reward that doesn’t require any Brasso to keep its shine – and it has always remained just out of reach.
McGregor had a ringside seat when Celtic made a habit of joining Europe’s big guns in the knockout stages in the Champions League. He was still a fresh-faced ballboy when the likes of Shunsuke Nakamura was curling in belters on the way to consecutive last 16 spots under Gordon Strachan.
McGregor was around the edges again when Celts stunned Barcelona and then saw off Spartak Moscow to progress under Neil Lennon in 2013. But there’s been a decade of heartache since in the continent’s premier competition. There’s been near misses, damaging defeats, moral victories and painful losses.
And sticking a Celtic ball in the bowl for the UEFA knockout stages draw has become the one thing missing from McGregor’s spectacular CV. The captain has seen success at this level – and wants some for the current side.
McGregor said: “I would have been there back then – I probably would have been in ball boy, actually, at those games. That’s the type of success that we want to bring. It’s a really tough competition, and if we can get through to that next phase, then for us and the journey, that’ll be a step forward.
“It’s been a long time since the club have done it. So can we be the group of players that bring us back to that level? It’s certainly what we want as a club, and then, if we do that, the players can feel proud of themselves as well.
“Is this the one thing missing? I think so, because you want to keep testing yourself at the highest level, and Champions League certainly is that. When we get a group of players, and you’re playing in the biggest competition, you want to feel like you’re making progress, and you want to feel like you’re participating in the biggest competition, but that means by winning games, and getting points, and getting through.
“Of course, we want to be up there and mixing it with the big boys. We feel like we’ve performed well. We now just need to finish it off properly.”
Back in those ballboy days, Celtic Park was a fortress. In recent years it’s become more of a tourist attraction, with rivals teams speaking in glowing terms about the atmosphere but leaving with the points in their back pockets.
It’s been a different story this season with big home wins against RB Leipzig and Slovan Bratislava as well as the battling draw with Club Brugge. And McGregor wants that fierce reputation restored against Young Boys tonight.
He said “We would have spells in the games where we were good, and we’d come off and be the nearly men. We’d be the guys that hadn’t played well for an hour and end up getting beat. You don’t want to be like that, and especially in elite level sport, you want to be winning games and feeling competitive in the games.
“You want teams to come away from here and say, what an atmosphere, but actually, it was a tough game as well. Celtic gave us a proper game – and we’re the one who come out either with points or we’ve won the game.
“That’s what we’ve been really good at this season, we’ve backed up the performances with the results, teams now come in here, they know they’re in a football match, and we have to try and keep that going for as long as we can.”
McGregor knows Celtic Park can play a part – especially if there needs to be some patience. He said: “I think everyone’s learning at the level, even the crowd are learning as well.
“We know in this competition you can’t just attack, attack, attack because you’ll get picked off, you’ll make a slack pass and teams can kill you 75 yards for their own goal. You have to be good with the ball and pick and choose your times to attack.
“It’s the players, we have to bring that energy, we have to bring the quality. “he crowd will respond to that anyway, but the game is 90 minutes, so you can’t just attack all the time, you have to be smart with that as well.
“Everyone’s learning at their level and the crowd are always part of that as well. But the big onus is on the players to make sure that we give them a performance that they’ll be happy with.”
McGregor is well aware the result is the be all and end all tonight though – and he’s not banking on Young Boys arriving in Glasgow as Champions League cannon fodder.
The Swiss outfit have had more managers this season (three) than they’ve managed points in the group stage (zero) but the Hoops playmaker knows from experiences the table doesn’t tell the whole story.
McGregor doesn’t need to guard against complacency. He said: “I don’t think so. Not when you get to this level. You can be bottom of this Champions League group, you’d still be a good side.
“We know how much quality is in this competition and we’ve experienced it time and time again. We’ve looked at them on the video, we’ve studied the way they want to play. They’ve got some athletic boys, good quality, and they’re an aggressive team.
“If you’re complacent against that, then you’re going to give yourself some problems. It’s about us being the aggressor in the game.”