The Aston Villa captain spent his early career playing with the Celtic midfielder at Notts County and has urged his former teammate to move to the Premier League in the future as he believes that he would be a huge success in England.
Celtic have lost quite a few of their players to the riches Premier League in recent years. And if those in England had their way then they’d lose a few more in the years to come. And one of the players on the radar of the English clubs is Callum McGregor.
McGregor is a mainstay in Neil Lennon’s team and plays an incredible amount of football for club and country every season. In 2018/19 he played the most number of minutes of any player in the world. And the fact that he has managed to maintain his performances despite this workload is a miracle in itself and another reason why he attracts the attention of the clubs down south.
Interestingly, it was not at Parkhead that McGregor got his first taste of senior football but in England. The midfielder spent the 2013/14 season away on loan plying his trade in the third tier of English football playing for Notts County. It is here that he was teammates with Jack Grealish, who himself was on loan from Aston Villa.
It is safe to say that both men have made major strides in football since then. McGregor is a huge part of this Celtic team and might one day go on to inherit the captain’s armband from Scott Brown. Grealish is the current captain of Aston Villa and led them back into the Premier League last season by winning the Championship play-off final.
When asked about McGregor’s chances of success if he ended up moving to the Premier League in the future, Grealish told the Daily Record:
"“If he ever did come to the Premier League, 100 per cent he’d be a success,” Grealish said. “He is playing Champions League or Europa League every season, he plays in the Scotland team every single time, so I can’t see why he’d want to leave.“But the Premier League is regarded by most as the best league in the world, so you never know. But if he comes here, he will be a success. But more than that, they [McGinn and McGregor] are both brilliant lads.”"
McGregor’s 14 goals for Notts County quite clearly left an impression on Grealish. But it is unlikely that his wish of seeing in the Premier League will be fulfilled anytime soon considering the fact that the midfielder just signed a new five-year deal at Celtic Park.