Callum McGregor on ignoring Rangers winds ups as Celtic captain tells rivals actions speak louder than words

Callum McGregor has been around the Glasgow block enough times to know how to shut out the noise coming from across the city.

The Celtic captain reckons the big match mind games done matter a jot because talk is cheap when it comes to the white hot heat of the derby. It might be fever pitch in the west of Scotland in the next week ahead of Sunday’s showdown against Rangers but it will be business as usual for McGregor. The 31-year-old has seen it all in this fixture in his decade at the top and won’t get drawn into the Old Firm blender. Rangers boss Philippe Clement kicked off the fighting talk with his defiant vow his side can claim maximum points at Parkhead after emerging from the weekend with a morale boosting six goal rout of Ross County.

McGregor – who has won or drawn 28 out of his 39 derbies – won’t be nailing any words to the dressing room wall. He said: "No. It's just talk isn't it, and talk's cheap. Nothing really changes, to be honest, everyone knows how big the games are and when they come around, you probably don't need any added motivation for it.”

That doesn’t mean McGregor is underplaying the encounter. Far from it. He also won’t try to dim the passion required for these epic occasions. McGregor said: “You have to have a little bit of emotion and emotion is good in football a lot of the time it's, you know, here's the structure, if we do this a lot of the time, then the probability is you'll have a good day.

"So it's as much about trying to keep the players calm. Obviously, when we arrive to the game, the emotion is important, because you need that, especially in these types of fixtures. But for most of the week, it's just business as usual.

“It's hard, it's hard to take that (emotion) away. I think as