ANDY Lynch has questioned whether Callum McGregor has the necessary leadership qualities to replace Scott Brown as Celtic skipper – and predicted the Scotland internationalist could leave Parkhead this summer anyway.
McGregor, who was ordered off in the first-half of the Premiership match against Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday after picking up two bookings in the space of three minutes, is currently the vice-captain.
He has deputised for Brown when his team mate has not been in the starting line-up and is widely expected to don the armband permanently after the 35-year-old moves on to Aberdeen in the summer.
But Lynch, who had a spell as skipper at Celtic during the 1970s, doesn’t feel the midfielder is suited to the role and suspects he could be lured down south, where his former manager Brendan Rodgers is in charge of Leicester City, after the Euro 2020 finals.
“I don’t know the guy personally,” he said. “I’m not listening to him talking in the dressing room before the game and at half-time. So it is hard to give an opinion on what he would be like as captain.
“But he doesn’t strike me as being a leader on the park, as being a captain type. And I can’t see who else they make captain. I think they might struggle to find someone. It depends who is there.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if McGregor left this summer. And I think Leicester City is the No.1 destination for him. Brendan Rodgers has talked about what a great player Callum is on many occasions and I wouldn’t be surprised if he moved for him. Leicester have got money.
“It will be interesting to see who actually stays at Celtic and who is given new contracts. Holding on to players becomes more difficult the longer there isn’t a manager in place.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here