Callum McGregor opens up on mood inside Celtic dressing room amid escalating O'Riley and Kyogo transfer chatter

Callum McGregor knows the final days of the transfer window can be chaos – but he insists Celtic players must treat them as normal.

The Hoops skipper has seen the disruption that can be caused with star men Moussa Dembele and Odsonne Edouard clinching deadline-day moves. McGregor too was the subject of a summer-long pursuit by Leicester four years ago when Brendan Rodgers tried and failed to prise him away from Parkhead. But with Matt O’Riley closing in on a megabucks move to Brighton, Manchester City keen on Kyogo and Reo Hatate linked with Leicester, McGregor knows the key to riding out the storm over the next week is to focus only on the football.

He said: “I think we just try and normalise it as much as possible. We all know it’s a potentially sticky period twice a season where people can feel unsettled. So the best thing for the players is just treat it as normal. It’s another working day. We come in, we try to train as hard as we can, we try to get better and improve the team. The more you talk about it then it becomes a bigger thing. It’s actually the less said, the better.

“If you ever do get yourself into a situation where you do leave, then people remember how you’ve behaved and how you’ve acted in the last two or three weeks leading up to it. I think as long as you stay true to yourself and you train and everybody sees you, treating people with respect, then it’s a case of football being football.

“People will move and we’ll have to find a new way, but I think it always leaves a lasting impression on people. Everything I’ve said applies to Matt and full credit to him. I don’t want to sound like we’re trying to throw him out the door! I want to keep him and I’m sure everybody at the club wants to keep him,