Scottish Premiership champion Callum McGregor played alongside Jack Grealish on loan at Notts County when the Magpies were a League One team.
The days when Callum McGregor and Jack Grealish were pulling the strings at Meadow Lane must feel like light years away for Notts County fans.
The Aston Villa captain played alongside the Celtic stalwart in the centre of The Magpies’ midfield during the 2013/14 season and, while County are currently playing outside the Football League for the first time in their 157-year history, two of their former loanees continue to go from strength to strength.
Grealish is establishing himself as one of the most influential players in England’s top flight while McGregor is now arguably the first name on the team sheet for Celtic and Scotland.
And while the two players only spent a brief couple of months together, McGregor obviously left an impression on a floppy-fringed, fresh-faced Grealish. So much so that, five years on, the Villa skipper has backed the all-action 26-year-old to join him in the Premier League if he ever fancies a fresh start below the border.
“Training with him day in, day out, you could see how much talent he had. I knew he was a couple of years older than me but he always stood out,” Grealish told the Daily Record. “Left footed players tend to catch the eye and he was technically brilliant.
“The main thing that stood out for me was that he always had an eye for goal. I always thought he’d go on to be a top player.”
“If he ever did come to the Premier League, 100 per cent he’d be a success. I don’t know if it will happen because Celtic has a massive place in his heart in the way Aston Villa is in mine. It would be hard to leave our clubs.
“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.”
McGregor won’t be going anywhere soon. The homegrown star signed a new five-year contract with Celtic earlier in November before telling the Scottish Sun that spending his entire professional career with the Scottish Premiership champions was a ‘real possibility’.
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