Are McGregor and Tierney being trialled as captain to prepare for life after Brown?

Follow us on Google Discover

Both Celtic academy graduates have featured as stand-in captains on occasion and look to be the right mould for future Hoops captains.

Callum McGregor just experienced quite the week as a Celtic player, scoring the winner in a European knock-out tie on his 150th appearance for the club, whilst also captaining his team for the first time in his career against St Johnstone on the weekend.

The 24-year-old took over the armband from the rested Scott Brown as Celtic played out a disappointing 0-0 draw on Sunday. However, the youngster will be mightily proud nonetheless having come through the ranks as an academy graduate.

With Brown nearing the end of his career, the long serving captain’s game time will begin to be managed more and more so, especially with the midfielder’s history of knee injuries.

Mikael Lustig, 31, is currently the club’s official vice-captain, but manager Brendan Rodgers appears to be trialling a couple of the younger Hoops in a bid to determine who may be the one to take over from Brown when his skipper’s tenure finally comes to and end.

Both McGregor and Kieran Tierney have now skippered the side on occasions when Brown has missed matches and both players look to be the exact mould necessary for a Celtic captain: life-long Celtic fans who know the ins and outs of the club better than anyone, but first and foremost, top quality players.

Tierney, 20, spent his entire youth career with the club between 2005 and 2014 and is as big a Celtic fan as they come. The same can be said for McGregor who enjoyed a career as a Celtic academy player between 2001 and 2013.

Both have gone on to enjoy stellar starts to their careers and it will be interesting to see the battle for captaincy develop further as Brown’s age continues to creep upwards.

As it stands, Tierney is arguably the stronger prospect when it comes to both footballing ability and likeliness for the captaincy.

The left-back has been touted as one of the finest young players in all of Europe, and as good as player as McGregor is, the same can simply not be said.

Tierney has also captained his country by the age of 20, and is clearly a valued leader by both club and country having won nine caps to date. McGregor, who has a single cap as it stands, has had to wait his time before breaking into the national team, with fierce competition in the midfield area.

Ironically, Tierney’s interest from other clubs could be the defining factor when it comes to the captaincy decision. The full-back recently signed a contract which will keep him at the club until 2023, but this will not be enough to ward off attempts to sign the youngster from the Premier League’s elite.

Handing the 20-year-old the captaincy would not only probably fulfil a life-long ambition for the boyhood Hoops fan, but also do wonders in the club’s attempt to keep Tierney as a Celtic player, in a similar style to Steven Gerrard and Liverpool.

Nevertheless, the intra-club rivalry for the captaincy post-Brown will be interesting to see develop. If anything, the Hoops faithful should be proud to have two academy graduates putting their hands up as genuine leaders of the team.