Callum McGregor brands Rangers rebuild 'irrelevant' 3 times as Celtic skipper warns new boys of target on their backs

Fired-up skipper Callum McGregor insists Celtic are ready to render Michael Beale’s huge summer Rangers rebuild as ‘irrelevant’ by staying put at the top of the Premiership pile.

McGregor led his side to a domestic clean sweep last season and has picked up five trophies out of six since being installed as club captain two years ago. Ahead of the latest big kick-off, he has warned a raft of Parkhead new arrivals that they’ll open the campaign with a target painted on their backs.

And he has insisted Beale’s multi-million spending spree on the other side of the city will count for nothing so long as the champions maintain the standards which have helped them dominate the Scottish game. Beale has splashed out on nine new recruits as he attempts to transform his side into title winners. But, asked for his thoughts on a flurry of recent transfer activity at Ibrox and other top flight clubs, McGregor said: “It’s pretty irrelevant. Listen, we know that everybody will be trying to strengthen, every manager and every club will have sat down at the end of the season and tried to pick areas in their group where they can improve.

“We’re no different. We’re the same. We understand that everybody is trying to beat us so we have to try to stay ahead of the chasing pack. But it becomes irrelevant what everyone else does. If we come and we prepare ourselves to work as hard as we can every day - try to produce as good a level of football as we possibly can and show that hunger to win - then all of it is on us. It becomes irrelevant what the rest are doing.”

And McGregor revealed that he has already hammered the message home to the new recruits in Brendan Rodgers’ quad during a series of team talks on and off the training pitch. Asked if