McGregor: Celtic will 'block out the noise' to focus on record

Callum McGregor insists Celtic will keep their focus and “block out the noise” as they aim to land a record tenth consecutive league title.

Neil Lennon’s squad are back in training after the shutdown, having achieved nine-in-a-row when they were declared champions last season. With the Premiership now having a confirmed start date of August 1, the players are now facing the task of going one step further and creating history and Mcgregor says the importance of the seaosn isn’t lost on his teammates.

“We are back in as a group and understand the challenge that is ahead of us,” he said.

“But the reason why we have been so successful in the past is because of the way we work, we take on game at a time, we don’t look too far ahead and the success has been built on that.

“We have to block out all the noise coming from everywhere else and just look at the next game.

“The boys have been pretty relaxed so far and I think if you start to get carried away with all the chat that goes on outside the camp the only people that can make this happen for us is the guys inside the building and we have to stay focused.

“We understand what is at stake but once you start looking too far ahead that is when things can quite quickly fall apart.

“So for us it is the same message. We have to stay calm, relaxed, we know how hard we have to work in training and preparation for the games and come a match day we have to perform every week to get the points and that is what we will try to do.”

For the Scotland midfielder, the enforced break that came with lockdown was the longest rest he has had in recent years, with international duty and European qualifiers cutting short the summer rest.

However, McGregor says he often felt the benefits of continuous playing and is looking forward to getting back in the groove.

He said: “There are two ways of looking at it.

“You would rather stay in your rhythm and keep playing and keep enjoying your football and at some point you might need an extended break.

“So from that point it was good that I never missed any games with injury or tiredness so I think that it has probably worked quite well that the break

has been there but you haven’t missed football as such.

“I am just desperate to get back playing football, as are the boys.”