The Celtic friendly against Ayr United gave the fans a chance to see legendary midfielder, Scott Brown, in a dugout in the flesh for the first time in Scotland.
In a game that was organised to help open up the Championship club’s new stand, the 1-1 draw was a great opportunity for the Celtic youth, fringe and first-team players to get some much-needed minutes in their legs.
And as Brown was asked about the return of Rodgers, he named one Celtic hero who was ‘huge’ for the Hoops gaffer last season.
Callum McGregor helped Celtic get ‘stronger’
As we already discussed today, Reo Hatate admitted that the team struggled to adapt to a new way of football as Rodgers tried to put his own stamp on the club.
But despite that, Brown admits he did not doubt that Rodgers would be a success as he pinpointed Callum McGregor as being a ‘huge help’ to delivering silverware to Paradise last season.
Brown said [BBC], “It’s the standards he [Rodgers] sets, what he expects and the detail that he goes into with the players as well.
“He’s got Callum [McGregor] there, who’s a leader and understands the way he wants to play from before. That’s been obviously a huge help from him as well, and you can see the further the season went on, the stronger they got.
“For him to come back, it was obviously going to be hard, but he’s managed to get through that little storm and showed what he can do at the end.
“I had full faith in Brendan doing a fantastic job at Celtic [again]. He has done it before, you know what he’s all about, how well he works and how much he wants to be at the club.”
McGregor missed just three games of the league campaign last season due to injury but finished 90 minutes in 25 out of Celtic’s 38 SPFL matches.
Taking over from Scott Brown was always going to be a big ask for any Celtic player but no one can deny that McGregor has taken over that mantle superbly.
Seven trophies out of nine including captaining a treble-winning team puts McGregor as one of Celtic’s most decorated players in their history and firmly into the annuls of Parkhead history.