By Frank McAvennie

25th Sep, 2023 | 6:00am

Celtic expert: 'Something's wrong' with Callum McGregor as new details emerge

There is “something wrong” with Celtic captain Callum McGregor following his comments about the standard of officiating in Europe.

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, former Hoops striker Frank McAvennie said that the level of leniency in European competitions has always been much lower.

The Celts were reduced to nine men in their 2-0 defeat to Feyenoord in their first Champions League group stage match of the 2023-24 campaign.

Gustaf Lagerbielke was shown a second yellow card and conceded a penalty before Odin Thiago Holm was shown a straight red card five minutes later.

As quoted by the Sun (19 September), the Hoops captain acknowledged that the leniency in the top European competitions is not very high compared to the domestic level.

McAvennie suggested people were reading too much into McGregor’s comments about the standard of officiating.

“People always try to make excuses,” he told Football Insider.

“You know when you go into Europe, even when I played, you know it is different. My managers told me many times and told the defenders that you can’t go to the ground if you do it is a foul. That has not changed in Europe.

“If Callum didn’t think it was a sending off then there is something wrong with him because his feet were up. The rules are rules and you just can’t do that. They let things go in Scotland I am quite happy with that but they are stricter in Europe.“

In other news, Celtic have smashed their club record with £51m payout.