Arne Engels should be a great lesson in how to develop footballers. We paid a premium to acquire the player and a year after he found himself on the bench towards the end of Brendan Rodgers’ time in charge last season. Martin O’Neill was in no doubt about what he could do with him, though. The player missed two months football through injury early in the year, before returning as a sub on the final game before the split, in a tense 1-0 win over St Mirren.
He started every game from then until the end of the season, bringing an energy and positional discipline the team were previously lacking. He is still only 22-years-old and without doubt would be a mainstay in the team, if we were able to keep him.
Nottingham Forest’s reported bid this morning could make that difficult. Arne has two years left on his Celtic contract and would likely treble the top wage at Celtic by moving to Forest. If, as is likely Celtic are resigned to losing him, they are likely to test the water with other clubs before taking conversations with Forest seriously.
115 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- »
In: Camilo Duran, forward (Qarabag, undisclosed).
Out:
Kasper Schmeichel, goalkeeper (retired);
Luis Palma, forward (Lech Poznan, loan to permanent, undisclosed);
Hayato Inamura, defender (Tokyo, loan to permanent, undisclosed);
Stephen Welsh, defender (Swansea City, undisclosed);
Ben Summers, midfielder (Ayr United, loan to permanent);
Josh Clarke, goalkeeper (Partick Thistle, loan to permanent);
Ben McPherson, defender (Partick Thistle, loan to permanent);
Andrew Kyle, defender (East Kilbride, loan to permanent).
Loan ended:
Marcello Sarrachi, defender (Boca Juniors);
Julian Araujo, defender (Bournemouth);
Tomas Cvancara, forward (Borussia Monchengladbach);
Benjamin Arthur, forward (Brentford);
Junior Adamu, forward (Freiburg);
Joel Mvuka, midfielder (Lorient).
A sports pitch for children in Glasgow’s East End could be built in the grounds of Celtic Park under a new plan.
Celtic have asked Glasgow City Council for permission to erect a multi-use games area outside the stadium.
The application states the pitch would be run by the Celtic FC Foundation and available “free of charge for local children”, subject to the charity’s operating procedures.
It adds that the proposed development will include a “multi-use playing surface for a variety of ball games and recreational activities”.
“The facility is intended to provide a safe, secure and inclusive environment for children to participate in sport and outdoor play,” plans state.
The Celtic FC Foundation, the club’s charitable arm, would cover the operational and maintenance costs of the facility.
Do the plans submitted say where the MUGA will be built?
https://www.glasgowworld.com/jpim-static/image/2026/07/13/12/09/onecms_b61c99dc-a46f-438a-b8ff-38e5cea28f3f_ae70da1f-3afb-4d5e-8263-1e889395927c.jpeg?crop=3:2,smart&trim=&width=640&quality=65
BLOGGA @ 1:27PM
I would agree with your point about Arne’s valuation by Forest or whomever else is interested, and I’m not convinced that we have done enough to develop him to the level which justifies interest at £25M+, so may the “greater fools” continue to find funds to support the Celtic business model.
AULDHEID @ 1:01PM
While I and others certainly appreciate your work explaining FSR/SCR to the masses, it would be great if you could get someone at Celtic Park to take a wee look. Maybe they would see how their caution is largely unjustified and in effect chokes ambition along with concomitant revenues that would predictably follow.
Wonder why Forest don’t wait until the last day of the window to do their trading
Reference26/01307/FUL
Alternative Reference100759380-001
Application ReceivedThu 18 Jun 2026
Application ValidatedThu 09 Jul 2026
AddressCeltic Park 95 Kerrydale Street Glasgow G40 3RE
ProposalInstallation of a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA)
StatusPending –
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 13TH JULY 2026 3:01 PM
BASHI-BAZOUKS
Can’t argue with any of that
saint stivs
July 13, 2026 3:49 pm
hmmm. kerrydale bar access corner, that is going to be a bottlekneck.
great idea, but wrong position imho.
https://publicaccess.glasgow.gov.uk/online-applications/files/2C6F3508D8F6809E8B6053A5048CCD4D/pdf/26_01307_FUL-EXIST_LOCATION_PLAN-6962127.pdf
Bashi-Bazouks @ 2:40pm
Great post. Respect
https://publicaccess.glasgow.gov.uk/online-applications/files/49BB46926BB85EDD8AEC67CEC1FAFDB0/pdf/26_01307_FUL-PROPOSED_BLOCK_PLAN-6962124.pdf
Saint Stivs re MUGA
Thank you.
My instinctive response?
Beautification in stages.
Would love to see the overall vision for the Celtic triangle.
I assume it has been revised significantly due to Covid …
… with the combined Museum, Superstore and Hotel piece
… now binned or archived on a high shelf.
Given the state of strategic communications “assume” is perhaps the operative word there.
“We need more players, we know this. The club is working on this.
Selfishly I want the players here from day one, ready to train for pre-season, but I understand football doesn’t work like this.
I know the club is working hard for those signings and I’m trying to help also.”
The walk to the Brazen from the Tolbooth in this heat was very tiring. Had to stop at Sharkeys for a rest.
BRRB
Not surprised at your age 🧑🦯🧑🦯➡️👩🦯➡️26° in the Trossachs time for a 🍺
BASHI-BAZOUKS & BSR – your respective lists complete an interesting picture.
However, as much as we all love a good debate about “transfer strategy”, such as it exists at Celtic Plc, in the here and now, I continue to find it very difficult to contemplate how it can be taken too seriously in the context of our current approach to squad management. So, while AULDHEID diligently provides explanation of FSR/SCR to help add caution to our ambitions, we have no indication that Celtic actively manage to this, let alone understand how to utilize it to our advantage to better serve ambitions alongside a sophisticated transfer strategy.
In fact, there remains little to no evidence that we have any strategy at Celtic Plc, save for the “world class in everything” pish that delivered us the lessons of the 2025/26 season. Satisfying as the hard-earned double was, the early season sting of the Kairat Almaty debacle should be all that occupies the minds of our board, as they “prepare” to ensure we don’t stumble again.
Yet, with 5-weeks to go until we play one of Europe’s minnows for our place at the big table, there are no signs that the last 12-months have been spent learning lessons, and shaping our approach accordingly.
Guiding the club’s strategy should be the primary responsibility of the board, a critical component of governance standards, but in view of continuing dysfunction, it would be risible to suggest this is being pursued. As the interim chairman delays his retirement, we are presumably working on finding at least 3 new NEDs, which could increase if as would be appropriate, Sharon Brown is thanked for her 10-years of service, and invited to leave. Naturally, the 30-year Desmond seat will not be vacated unless a bigger change is affected. A board bereft of proper resources and appropriate perspective cannot possibly hold the executives to account, and so we continue aimlessly with the invisible duo of Nicholson and McKay. Absent any evidence that the Plc is capable of setting strategy, there is little reason to hope that we exit another transfer window stronger than we entered.
The worry here would be that we see player sales as “good business” if attractive offers are received for the right players, but with no obvious connection to sustaining and improving the squad, those funds are utilized ineffectively or just accumulate in the cash reserves. Don’t get me wrong, every single player we have should be available at the right price, but that needs to connect in some way to a pre-existing plan for their replacement; at the very least a profile that fits with the manager’s version of a player for each position, but ideally some options that have already been identified.
We should be asking ourselves this question; “is this transfer window looking any different from so many of the others, and if not, how can we reasonably expect a different/better outcome?”.
More importantly; “what needs to change at the club to create a pattern of real progress, and provide a genuine sense that each transfer window is an opportunity to build on the one which preceded it?”.
#wakeupandsmellthecloverCSC
bigrailroadblues on 13th July 2026 4:19 pm
JOHN did you meet THE BARD OF BLOOMFONTAINE in SHARKEYS.
How loathsome are the guys that have captured our club? No better than the worst hedge funds. Our multi-generational emotional attachment exploited in commodified little parcels. The latest in the slow boiling frog is charging us £65 a year to hear from our own players and coaching staff via their CelticPlayer. Just feck off you shower of neoliberal tossers. Making Celtic less recognisable year-on-year.
Favourite Uncle
Is that Matt?
Prestonpans
I’m at a difficult age. 🙄
bigrailroadblues on 13th July 2026 4:36 pm
Favourite Uncle
Is that Matt?
YES.
Favourite Uncle
Met him a few times down the years. Mick G from SC knows him well. He gets around. 😁
File it under ‘ Museum ‘ remember that lie…..the prawn sandwich car park
Players come and players go, its part of football. Dont get attached to any of them. We, as a club, shohld be more aggresive in the market i.e., selling and buying players. As a supporter its hard not to get pissd off when the club are so behind the curve.
HH
Osmand will sign a new deal and be packaged as your ‘new striker ‘
the big sports news is ………. kilmarnock have a new grass pitch.
GEDINTE on 13TH JULY 2026 4:29 PM
You don’t leave much on the page to dispute.
MO’N is on record saying he was surprised that recruitment was “all down to one man” — Paul Tisdale. With Tisdale dismissed six months ago, we already know there are fundamental problems that go well beyond the quality of the squad. The evidence is there, as is the habit of showing successful managers the exit door.
Now we have a new human shield who really did pull off a miracle, giving him plenty of goodwill to carry whatever happens in this transfer window. Strip it down and he’s already singing the same tune as BR: “We need new players.”
If the CEO hadn’t given us the “world class in everything we do” line, we’d have little else to prove he exists. So we shouldn’t grumble — he’s not just a hypothesis. If communication wasn’t another issue, perhaps he could tell us what a great job he’s doing.
These are the problems that need solving, alongside modernising the club, improving the data and analytics department, and everything else. Yet the transfer strategy still comes with a welded-on “no net spend” policy. Last summer it reached piss-take levels; by then we’d already been Almaty’d.
They used to call it looking for “diamonds in the midden”. In simple terms, wealthy clubs shouldn’t have to rely on that, in my opinion. To be fair, though, we’re not even buying punts anymore.
The fun will start when we accept a bid for Engels. My prediction is we’ll delay selling him until it’s too late to bring in a proper replacement.
Auldheid’s FSR pub one-to-ones could be in high demand from some very thirsty Celts.
You bhoys can argue, disagree, debate and fall oot until you are on the hot rails to hell. Frankly my dears, I don’t give a damn. 😉
Jota back training on grass 👍
He’s back with us on Monday,” O’Neill said. “But being back and being fit are two different things.
“I think he is doing a little bit out on the grass. Doing straight-line running for a cruciate is different to doing twists and turns and stuff like this. But he’s been out a long time, and I think he feels as if it’s doing fine.
“Until he’s really nearly fit to play, I’m sorry, you just have to dismiss him in that sense.
“I can’t keep thinking every single day ‘When is he going to be playing?’. I have already dismissed him until Halloween, perhaps.
“But who knows how people come back. I’m sorry, it’s rather cruel but you just have to leave it, he’s not involved. I can’t worry about something that might be three months down the line.”
Elsewhere, Celtic have offered Kelechi Iheanacho a new contract.
O’Neill is keen to keep Nigerian striker – who scored winning goals against Kilmarnock, Dundee, Hibs, and Motherwell last term – around for 2026/27.
“There’s an offer there to him at this minute. So we’ll see how that develops,” O’Neill said.
The Celtic manager is unaware of a bid for Arne Engels, despite reports that English Premier League club Nottingham Forest had tabled an offer.
New signing Camilo Duran, who joined for £5.5 million from Qarabag last week, has been ill and did not train today.
Celtic will assess the Colombian ahead of tomorrow evening’s friendly against Sporting CP at Estadio Algarve.
For info.
This greater alignment between the EPLs financial rules and UEFA FSR might help make Celtic a bit more wage competitive with the EPL clubs who do not qualify for Europe although TV money still favours them.
https://www.farrer.co.uk/news-and-insights/premier-league-financial-fair-play-rules-reform-explained/
BSR
As a young fella in the U.S. I trained on grass. I’m still a fan of the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd and Spirit. 👍
Spirit 1968
Wonderful.
https://youtu.be/faEtYEP2vUs?si=gBrSZqHSwzZF4Yh9
Gedint
So, while AULDHEID diligently provides explanation of FSR/SCR to help add caution to our ambitions, we have no indication that Celtic actively manage to this, let alone understand how to utilize it to our advantage to better serve ambitions alongside a sophisticated transfer strategy.
====
FSR required legal and accountancy skills to write the regulations.
Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay have those skills and Celtic claimed in 2022 that Celtic played a part in the development of FSR so I reckon they both understand the significance of its impact on player trading.
They also get business input from other sources familiar to Celtic so there is the chance they know more about deploying FSR than we do.
Its not understanding FSR from a technical aspect that matters as much as understanding how it determines how Celtic do business so that some of the myths that cause disatisfaction can be put to bed.
I will follow up on that in respect of the “Celtic have to sell a player before they can buy” myth.
The sell before we buy myth.
Why would Celtic need to sell first with a cash balance in the bank to keep accounts in credit until a sale is made?
Think of it as buying a house before you have sold your own. There is a risk but if your house is in good condition in an attractive area the risk of no sale is small.
What delays buying is the wages, agent fees and amortisation costs that are part of player squad costs that are bound by the SCR calculation.
Player trading is not Football Manager, done at the click of a mouse.
The idea Celtic have to sell first is one of the myths that no longer applies when there is cash in bank to fall back on.
That only became the case in recent times after a couple of bites at the CL raised incom.
It might have been true in the past but no longer is, which makes it a myth.
Why did Celtic shelf plans for Musuem ,Ticket Office ,and the Hotel ,have the board ever came out to tell us how these plans were shelved,or was dick dastarsidy Dermot Desmond that said forget
Timbhoy163
Nice to see you posting on these pages. Unfortunately I can’t answer your questions.
AULDHEID @ 1:01PM
While I and others certainly appreciate your work explaining FSR/SCR to the masses, it would be great if you could get someone at Celtic Park to take a wee look. Maybe they would see how their caution is largely unjustified and in effect chokes ambition along with concomitant revenues that would predictably follow.
====
Ive tried and complained that what I am doing should be done by Celtic, but until such time as they trust social media not to twist what they say into an attack on them and supporters trust that what they are being told is true then dialogue by which clarification is delivered will never happen.
However I’m stubborn to the point of foolishness and will keep plugging away at building trust.
I thought of a slogan for me.
I have a zeal to heal.