Arne Engels

Difficult to tell if folk are joking now.

 

O’Riley was outstanding from the minute he joined for the first 6 months. Played against Hibs Hearts and Rangers in his first month and was a standout performer in each of the games.

 

O’Riley wasn’t that great in his first full season to be honest. His first 6 months he was very good, his performances then dipped, then Rodgers come in and took his game to another level.

 

Sure it was the Aberdeen League game?

 

Gave away possession on 19 occasions in the time he was on the pitch according Alan on the Huddle Breakdown, considering he never even started, that's mental

 

I honestly cannot remember a player ever having every single pass he makes scrutinised. Both Engels and Hatate seem to have had this treatment this season though.

 

He was referring to Aberdeen away mate, it was an old post. Mccowan got three assists and a goal vs Ross County and then was dropped for the next game.

 

Yep. Complete opposite to Bernardo and McCowan who can do no wrong. Reo plays well he's praised for an hour then dropped in everyone's starting 11s in the next match thread and bashed from minute one in the next game.

 

Hatate gets a free ride from many in the support. If he was Scottish * help him. Hopefully we can upgrade on him in the next window and let him go. Nowhere near consistent enough and a liability at times.

 

1 good game a month

 

Not even 90 mins, 45 mins here and there. We need better. Unfortunately he’s not capable of producing good performances for a sustained period on a regular basis.

 

To be fair, I think McCowan has been excellent any time he has been given a chance. If Engels or Hatate had made the pass he did the other week against Hibs though, when he was short in his pass to Schmeichel and put the Hibs player one v one, there would have been far more made of it. Bernardo I don’t think has been doing any more than Hatate has in recent games. Hatate ended up our best midfielder on Sunday by a distance.

 

ARNE Engels has squeezed in rather a lot in the four months since he moved to Celtic in a club record £11m transfer on the final day of the summer transfer window back in August.


The Belgian internationalist has helped the Scottish champions to build up a commanding lead in the William Hill Premiership - and he will be trying to help them restore their 11 point advantage with a win over Dundee United at Tannadice this afternoon.

He has also been heavily involved in Europe as Brendan Rodgers’ men have moved to within touching distance of the knockout round play-offs in the Champions League.

And last Sunday at Hampden he came off the bench in the Premier Sports Cup final against Rangers and lifted his first trophy as a professional. The midfielder set up winger Nicolas Kuhn for his side’s third goal in regulation time and then stepped forward and netted a penalty in a dramatic shootout.

So far so good? The 21-year-old has certainly thoroughly enjoyed his time in this country and is looking forward to the remainder of the 2024/25 campaign. However, he believes that he can improve on his performances to date and stressed that he is determined to make more of an impact in the months ahead


I’ve loved my time here,” he said. “It’s been a really nice experience so far. I’ve settled in and everyone at the club has really helped me. It’s been really smooth, actually. I can only say positive things up to now and I can’t wait to carry that on.

“I appreciate the support he (Rodgers) has given me, but everyone at the club has been like that. If it’s not the manager, it’s somebody else. They want me to enjoy my time here and improve my abilities. It’s great to have people like that within the club.

“It’s always tough for a young player coming into a new country but I was used to it in Germany (Engels joined Bundesliga outfit Augsburg from Brugge in January last year when he was just 19) so I knew what was coming on to me.

“But it’s even better here and it’s going even smoother than I thought it would. It’s different to being at home or somewhere else, but that’s normal.”

Engels had a disappointing evening personally against his countrymen Club Brugge at Parkhead last month and his fellow summer signing Paulo Bernardo has, the home league game against Hibernian a fortnight ago aside, been preferred to him since.

But he has redoubled his efforts in training at Lennoxtown and remains keen to show supporters why it required an eight figure sum to secure his services.

“I just try to work hard and improve myself every day,” he said. “I want to show them my ability and I feel like I’m in a good way with that right now. I still need to improve, 100 per cent. I know this, I’m the first to admit it. But I’m on a good road and so is the team. It can only get better.

“I hope there is still so much more to come from me here in the future. It’s up to myself and the team to perform. On a personal level, I want to enjoy my time here and improve as a player. And hopefully to win.”

Engels has quickly grasped that nothing less than outright victory will suffice at Celtic and is pleased that he has that pressure on him to perform every time that he takes to the park as he feels it is making him a superior footballer to the one he was before.








ARNE Engels has stated the focus in the aftermath of Celtic’s dramatic Premier Sports Cup final victory should have been on James Forrest becoming Scotland’s joint most decorated player.


And the Belgian midfielder insisted the Scottish champions could still have triumphed even if Rangers had been awarded a penalty in the second period of extra-time when the scoreline was 3-3.

Fans of the Ibrox club were furious when no spot kick was given after a Liam Scales pull on Vaclav Cerny inside his area – and SFA head of refereeing Willie Collum admitted on Friday the mistake was “unacceptable”.

However, Engels felt that Celtic, whose winger Forrest moved alongside Lisbon Lion Bobby Lennox in the medals table with his 25th trophy success, were worthy winners at the end of the epic encounter.




The £11m signing stressed that he would have been confident of his side bouncing back and levelling again if their opponents had been given a penalty which they converted.

“I’m not aware of everything that’s been said,” he said. “But last Sunday we showed that we’re a really good team who can perform in the big games. We deserved to win it and that’s why we were on the podium. That’s all that matters.


Is it a shame that people are talking about other things? James Forrest equalled a record by winning the trophy, he has so many medals now and is a quality player. If there needs to be something said after Sunday, it should be about him.

“If Rangers had got a penalty and scored, we could still have come back and won the game, 100 per cent. We’ve already shown that a few times, that we can come back.



We won the cup, which is the most important thing. I don’t want to talk about anything else. We’ve shown that we have such a strong squad who performs in the big occasions.”

Engels added: “It’s a case of winning one trophy and it’s on to the next one. That’s our mentality here. Nobody at this club really cares about what other people say about us. We only look at ourselves.

“We know what goals we have for the rest of the season and that’s what we’re working towards. A really strong part of our squad is that we don’t look at other things, only ourselves. We want to improve every day together.

 

I get the vibe he's settled in lot more now . Personally think we are gonna start seeing an upturn in his performances

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6 month loan to Motherwell to get some game time might do it

 

Sarcasm meter off the chart here?

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Think we need to start him next couple, trust that we've recruited class.

 

Bringing Engels on with only five minutes left was poor game management by Rodgers. Not the way to build his confidence up.

 

Unlucky not to bag the winner today.

 

* great game from him today.