Celtic confidential: the only parkhead player who is almost impossible for Brendan Rodgers to replace

Some footballers are so humble and disinterested in the way they do their job, so constantly capable of performing at a high level, that their importance for the team is taken for acquired.

If we didn’t know better, it could be true for the Celtic captain, Callum McGregor, who came from injury to play a key role in his team’s 3-0 victory against Hearts on Saturday.

Not for a minute that is associated with Celtic in the talent of McGregor, but he is one of these influential performers whose invaluable value is the most felt when it is absent.

It was cruelly missed in the defeat of the derby by the Rangers, when Celtic was unusually nervous in the back, unable to connect with the midfielder and, for long spells, difficult to progress through third parties.

How different they were on Saturday with McGregor in the ranks. It defines the tempo and gives the Celtic rhythm.

Not only is he still available for his goalkeeper and his central defenders, but he takes the opponents where they do not want to go and create space.

This season, he added another dimension to their attack with nine goals and an eye for the pass that changes the situation.

Without his perfectly weighted ball, Daizen Maeda would not have marked his first match against Hearts.

All this makes you ask you how Celtic will get out of it without McGregor when the day comes to retire.

He will be 32 years old in June. His contract does not expire before 2028, but playing as he does every week for the next three years is much to ask.

As Scotland has already discovered, it is not easy to replace McGregor. It will be even more difficult for Celtic, to whom he devoted his career.

He knows the club upside down, as well as the requirements of their supporters and what it takes to play for them.

No matter how much money the club must spend on the transfer market, they will not be able to buy this type of package.

The coast is clear for Celtic to Coast to Title – and Hampden Final

While Brendan Rodgers will continue to emphasize that there are no easy games, their next three are as close as it comes to a formality in the upper part of Scottish football.

On each side of a home match against Kilmarnock, who has not won on the road since October, are two clashes with St Johnstone – one in the first on Sunday, the other in the semi -finals of the Scottish Cup.

With each respect for the Perth Club, there is about as much chance that they take an upheaval because there is dry Tay river, so poor is their record against Celtic in recent years.

In fact, Celtic has won 27 of his last 31 games against St Johnstone. The other four were prints. The cumulative score on this period is 94-14. This season alone, they beat the 6-0 and 4-0 team from Simo Valakari.

The last time Celtic lost against St Johnstone was in McDiart Park in May 2016, when Leigh Griffiths scored his 40th of the season during a 2-1 defeat. It was a result that obtained fourth place for the local team.

This season, the Valakari team is the bottom of the first -time rock, five points drifting from Dundee in the second basin and to still beat one of the teams in the first six, not to mention the league’s chiefs.

While Celtic seeks to close a potential hat -trick, they could hardly have asked for a more useful game sequence.

Rodgers has not abandoned Holm … Can he rekindle his career in Los Angeles?

Celtic Confidential recently reported how much the Parkhead transfer target Mateusz Bogusz paid a career in the Mexican elite after having gone a great money from Los Angeles FC to Cruz Azul, where he now aligns with the former hoop striker Giorgos Giakoumakis.

Well, the Celtic links do not stop there, because the man brought to replace Bogusz to the MLS hold was none other than the Norwegian midfielder Odin Thiago Holm.

The 22 -year -old accepted a loan of a season with Lafc, but was forced to wait to make his debut due to the current calf problems that most of his time destroyed in Glasgow.

However, Holm came out of the bench in the last two games of his club and is ready to finally make a brand in California after two frustrating years of limited action.

The former man of Valerenga presented only 16 times for Celtic, mainly in the first half of last season before falling into disgrace, then succumbing to an injury.

After appearing on a list of “next generation” talents alongside Jamal Musiala, Florian Wirtz and Xavi Simons, Holm clearly has potential bags.

Hope is now that he can start to show it alongside illustrious teammates such as Olivier Giroud, Hugo Lloris and Cengiz Under in Los Angeles.

The Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers still houses that Holm can have a future in Celtic, where one day there will be one day to find a successor to Callum McGregor.

A main role in Hollywood’s home would be a good way to hear for the role.

Back-up Bain could still add to its “Reflections” coil to Celtic

If unforeseen circumstances afflict the goalkeeper filled Viljami Sinisalo and interrupt his long -awaited passage between the sticks for Celtic, the colorful times will wait if the gloves fall to the following man online.

Scott Bain is now in his eighth season at Celtic, but spent the second half of it behind Joe Hart, Kasper Schmeichel, Benjamin Siegrist and Sinisalo in the hierarchical order.

With Schmeichel now sidelines for potentially the rest of the season, and Sinisalo has set a chance to shine after his summer arrival at Aston Villa, Bain is back on the bench on the day of the door, an injury or a red card far from his 79th outing for the Parkhead Club.

If his most recent appearances are something to pass, Celtic fans hope that it is as close to action as him.

Since he made 23 appearances under Neil Lennon in the bad 2020/21 Celtic season, when the club missed 10 in the Rangers of Steven Gerrard, Bain has been limited to eight appearances.

Of these eight, three ended with a defeat and one trained a draw.

One of the four victories saw Bain Concede a own goal during a 3-2 Champions League victory against Real Betis and another was a two-minute camée designed to offer Hart an emotional shipping of the park during his last appearance.

The only constants were trembling moments, flawless nerves and continuous questions, with its display during a 4-2 defeat against Hibs at the end of the second season of Angel Postoccoou by seeing Bath badly for the third and fourth goals of Leith.

Since then, his only outings were out of the bench during a 3-0 victory against Livingston last season after Hart was carded for a fault in the first half on Mo Sangare, then exceeding in the following victory-and chaotic-2-1 on Motherwell while English served his suspension, then this brief observation during Hart’s feeling before being reduced to the role of the third man this season.

With his contract running until next summer, however, there is still time for bath to add another blooper or two if he has the opportunity.

Sadiku’s Celtic side is drifting in the SWPL title race

Elena Sadiku is against her in her quest to prevent a season without trophy for Celtic women, whose campaign is in danger of disentangling.

Already both cuts, they are now nine points behind the Hibs leaders in the SWPL after a 2-1 defeat against Glasgow City last Friday evening.

In a tight match at the New Douglas Park, Saoirse Noonan de Celtic canceled Brenna Lovera’s first match before Kimberly Smith obtained a winner with only four minutes.

It was difficult for Celtic, who had taken the game to their opponents in the second half, but it extends a bad shape that came exactly at the wrong time.

Three consecutive defeats, no victories in four, a victory in six: whatever the way you look at him, it was a frustrating spell for Sadiku and his players who won the title last season.

There is a fine line between success and failure in this fiercely competitive title race. The Sadiku team must put itself on the other side, starting with their next match, against the Rangers a week on Sunday.

“It looks like we need luck, as we need something right to give ourselves something in terms of margins,” said Sadiku.

“It is never out of our reach. I think there are still eight games, there are 24 points to play. I told girls, we now have an international break. We will fight hard because we cannot go.

“We have to continue and we have to continue to push hard and that is exactly what we are going to do against the Rangers. We will go to team again and we will fight very hard for these three points.