Tom English
BBC Scotland Chief Sports Journalist

image source, Getty Images

The brutal truth about Celtic’s miserable years in Europe is that the player who has been this team’s totem for so long is also the one who suffered most when things went wrong in the proving grounds of Spain, France, Germany and elsewhere .

Callum McGregor, 31, is a modern great at the club but he bears the scars of Celtic’s failings in unforgiving places like no other. It’s him and James Forrest. They’ve covered the gamut, from Brendan Rodgers to Neil Lennon to Ange Postecoglou to Rodgers 2.0.

Rodgers has won 23% of his European group and knockout games and lost 63% as Celtic manager. Postecoglou won 21%, Lennon won 36% in his second term. McGregor was there for the vast majority of them – 58 games, 15 wins, 26% success rate in about eight seasons.

It’s a woeful return and if the bookmakers are to be believed, it will continue with all the bells and whistles. They all believe that Atalanta will comfortably beat Celtic in the third round of the Champions League on Wednesday.

In the first goalscorer bet, the first nine players are Atalanta players, then Adam Idah and then a number of other home players.

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