ALEX’S ANGLE: THE BENJI ENIGMA

BENJAMIN NYGREN cost a mere £1.7million when Celtic signed him from Danish side Nordsjaelland in the summer.

As far as transfer fees go, the Swede was eclipsed by the £5.2million capture of Sebastian Tounekti, from Hammarby IF, and the £4.5million purchase of Michel-Ange Balikwisha, from Royal Antwerp.

Nygren has completely overshadowed the wingers with a 17-goal haul so far in his debut campaign at the Hoops.

It’s a phenomenal return for the 24-year-old Swede during such a turbulent and troubled time at the champions, on and off the pitch.

So, in such testing circumstances, it would appear rather foolhardy, even churlish, to criticise Nygren’s contribution to the cause since he walked through the doors at Parkhead.

BY THE LEFT…Bejamin Nygren is on the spot to score Celtic’s equaliser in the dramatic 3-2 stoppage-time triumph over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park last weekend. 

And, yet, I have to confess the player is an enigma to me, a bit of a conundrum as far as fitting into the champions’ engine room that has clearly malfunctioned since the first kick of the ball in August.

It’s difficult to fathom why experienced managers such as Brendan Rodgers and Martin O’Neill have failed to get a tune out of the genuine talent that is available in this crucial area of the team structure.

I disregard the contribution from Wilfried Nancy because nobody, on the pitch or in the stands, could quite comprehend what he was apparently demanding of his players.

For 33 tortuous days, it was just a collection of lost Bhoys going through the complicated motions before the trapdoor collapsed under the weight of the Frenchman’s incompetence.

Naturally enough, Callum McGregor, a fine expotent of a football, is the leader of the pack in the supply line and he has Arne Engels, Reo Hatate, Paulo Bernardo, Luke McCowan, as well as Nygren, for company.

And, of course, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has joined the party to add his invaluable experience.

Neither the former England, Arsenal and Liverpool performer nor the injured Engels, who remains the club’s record buy at £11million, were available for Thursday night’s home Europa League first leg play-off encounter against VfB Stuttgart.

CHEERLEADER…Benjamin Nygren rouses the Celtic support.

It wasn’t easy to accept the Celtic players being almost contemptuously brushed aside by superior opponents and there was something gut-wrenchingly sad in witnessing the club captain reduced to racing around looking for scraps while chasing shadows.

O’Neill started with Nygren and Bernardo as McGregor’s sidekicks against the team sitting fourth in the Bundesliga.

With the Germans deservedly leading 3-1, the contest was as good as over by the time Hatate replaced Bernardo and then McCowan came on for Nygren, who had claimed the team’s equaliser in the first-half to offer a flicker of hope.

However, the visitors asserted their superiority with a second goal before the interval and we all knew it was mission impossible when they rifled in a third shortly after the turnaround.

It was another depressing confrontation in which the midfield had failed to display its potential.

There’s no getting away from the fact that Hatate’s form this season has been inexplicably awful while Bernardo appeared a higher calibre performer when he first arrived on a season-long loan from Benfica in September 2023.

A year later, Celtic shelled out £3.5million in a five-year deal for the former Portugal Under-21 skipper and since then he appears to have dropped into his own personal vacuum.

SOB STORY…Arne Engels can’t hide his disappointment after the Premier Sports League Cup Final defeat in December.

Engels was picking up some good form before the unfortunate injury that will see him sidelined until the end of next month, at least.

We all know McCowan will give 100 per cent whenever he gets the nod, but he appears to have been suffocated in the general midfield malaise.

And that leads us to Nygren. I was discussing the overall contribution of the seven times-capped international with a couple of good friends, Gerry and Phil, during a long-awaited catch-up at The Scotia Bar in Glasgow a week or so ago.

Needless to say, they are both admirers of the team from the east end of Glasgow and, naturally, the chat got round to all things Celtic. I mentioned my unease at the overall contribution of the Swede and I half-expected to be derided by my chums.

I was pleasantly surprised when they nodded in agreement with my assessment. Simply put, I respect their valued opinion.

And I was interested to note that Chris Sutton, in his Saturday column at my old paper, the Daily Record, also aired his concerns when he observed: “Benjamin Nygren is one of the game’s great mysteries.

“The Swede has such an impressive goal return and brilliantly took another against Stuttgart.

“Yet he can be anonymous at times and it means Celtic just can’t get games under control.”

Possibly, the impressive goalscoring achievement of the player is masking other deficiencies in his overall game.

Yes, I realise that sounds harsh, all things considered.

I believe we have yet to see the best of Nygren as a fully operational midfielder as opposed to a player who has the exceptional knack of finding pockets of space in vulnerable areas to punish the opposition.

ALEX GORDON