IN the quiet confidence and composure of fresh-faced Arne Engels, Celtic supporters can see real glimmers of a future worth believing in. For those across the city of Glasgow, the same old names having the same old arguments over the same old issues just makes Rangers feel like a club stuck firmly in the past.
And the brighter punters capable of taking off the blue-tinted specs and seeing life as it truly is must fear that this was the week where finally being left in the slipstream of their richer, stronger rivals — Espanyolification, as some like to call it — really started to move from much-discussed theory to evident truth.
Celtic smashing Slovan Bratislava 5-1 in their first game of the Champions League guarantees nothing in itself. The Slovaks were as poor as the Parkhead side were good. Far tougher tests lie in wait for Brendan Rodgers and his side and will offer greater opportunity to judge exactly where their summer renovation has taken them.
Belgian midfielder Arne Engels has made an impressive start to his Celtic career
Engels scores from the penalty spot in the 5-1 Champions League win over Bratislava
Likewise, wisdom would suggest it is best to temper enthusiasm about £11million signing Engels too. However, even after a handful of appearances, this boy just looks the part. He fits the profile of player Celtic should have been signing for years instead of diddling around in shallower pools for the likes of Gustaf Lagerbielke, Yuki Kobayashi and Oh Hyeon-gyu.
He’s 21 and, already, appears to have the physique and technique to handle high-level competition. He is clearly being fast-tracked into the Belgium squad as it resets in the wake of a disappointing European Championship, having made his debut as a late substitute against Israel this month.
Even in the way he comports himself off-field, he creates the impression he is made of the right stuff to reach the top. Asked about the pressures involved in stepping up to take penalty-kicks after the Slovan match, he smiled: ‘I’m always cool. I trust in myself.’
Before the game, puffing out his chest as he lined up to the sound of the Champions League theme, his body language roared: ‘I’m here — and I belong here’.
In a country in which players two years old than him are still regarded as kids and generally have every bit of personality battered out of them by whoever does their club’s media training — you know the drill, ‘taking it one game at a time’, ‘just happy to be here’ — it is refreshing to hear him say he feels Celtic can beat anyone in Europe’s top competition. Even if they can’t.
This is what comes from being brought up in a system and within clubs which have encouraged him to be himself. Celtic have won a watch signing him. Stay fit and healthy and he’s going to be a star who turns a serious profit.
But here’s the thing. He cannot become a one-off. This now has to be the standard at Parkhead. Sure, bargains can be picked up at lower prices and a bit of gambling in the market is fine. However, your chances of success — both on the park and in terms of gaining profit from sell-ons — heighten significantly with greater initial outlays.
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has been backed heavily in the transfer market
They will also increase through building a proper recruitment set-up. Rodgers admitted during the window that Celtic needed to review their operations in that department — and they must.
They landed Engels with what is in place at the moment, but it is not enough. There needs to be a head of recruitment or sporting director. Maybe both. Rodgers will also have to accept he can’t have complete control of the show either.
But Celtic have money coming out of their ears at the moment, with their main domestic rival in crisis, and they can’t let this moment pass without putting in the right structures and the right people for the long-term. Something they have failed with in the recent past.
Committing £11m to a player remains a big deal in Scottish football. And signings of that level are not always guaranteed to work in terms of hauling in future funds.
Consider £9m Christopher Jullien. However, if Celtic can break that barrier of flogging talent for £30m-plus and build a reputation of selling to real, top-level clubs — something chairman Peter Lawwell regularly talked about during his time as chief exec — even the odd failure at that kind of price tag can be soaked up.
Unless Rangers find some sugar daddy with oodles of dough at hand, and that doesn’t look like it’s on the cards, Celtic are in an almost unassailable position if they do their business right, rather than giving people jobs in the showers or recruiting folk whose dads have been hanging around the place in prominent positions.
Yes, this is the last year of guaranteed Champions League money from an automatic league-phase place — sure to top £40m for the Parkhead side this term — but the Champions Path remains through qualifying and that should give them a strong chance of staying at the top table going forward.
Compare that to where Rangers find themselves. Where Celtic fans are swooning over Engels, Ibrox punters are burying their heads under the covers as former chairman Dave King starts chuntering on again from stage left.
Honestly, has anyone got the stomach for months and months of this? It is depressing. Just a sign of a club going nowhere. Other than backwards, that is. To tired old faces and guys who have been round the block before.
Former chairman Dave King wants to return to the Rangers board
John Gilligan has returned to Rangers as interim chairman after John Bennett stood down
King had his shot in charge of the train set. He got some things right. He got loads of things wrong. Then, he left. Internal warfare and EGMs to get him back in the door are the last thing the place needs.
John Gilligan is back as interim chair in the wake of John Bennett stepping down. No offence to Gilligan. He has an impressive business background, but he’s been a director before.
The guy entrusted to help him out, George Letham, has been a director before. Graeme Park is clearly having a say in things, too, and the shadow of his father Douglas still looms large.
All these guys did their bit when Rangers needed them nearly a decade ago, but it just feels like going round in circles. Only now, there is discord, and no clear view of where Rangers are going. Or aiming to go.
Rangers boss Philippe Clement has had limited resources to work with in the transfer market
The squad is poor considering the money spent to assemble it. There are few assets, probably none, that could command a transfer fee close to eight figures. The summer window showed there are limited resources.
Vital positions within the club remain unfilled. It is an organisation that just reeks of stagnation.
Even manager Philippe Clement revealed just over a week ago, to little fanfare, that he ‘had the choice to make in the summer’ to carry on even though he knows ‘the challenge is much bigger than it was last season’.
He opted to stay, of course. Had Domenico Tedesco been emptied as Belgium head coach, as was widely expected after the Euros, that decision might have been a little more testing.
Other than a new long-term contract, it is hard to know what led Clement to keep the faith. With his calls for unity likely to fall on deaf ears as the club’s major shareholder chirrups from the sidelines, the past week must surely have him questioning it.
Willie Collum has made an encouraging start in his new role as Head of Referees
Referees chief Collum should be applauded for bringing people in from outside the tent
MUCH as it seemed advantageous to employ someone from outside the Old Boys’ Club after the underwhelming reign of Crawford Allan, Willie Collum has made an encouraging start as the SFA’s head of refereeing.
His VAR Review TV show hit the right notes in its first episode the other week and has clear potential to become something much, much more.
He has been honest about mistakes made and the need to improve overall standards and that has bought him valuable breathing space.
Admitting there are issues is the first step towards fixing them and it remains a mystery that so few people within the SFA have been capable of recognising that. Most fans understand the need to support referees, but that can exist hand-in-hand with demanding that they be better at the top level.
The latest development in Willie’s spirit of glasnost is the change from a three-person VAR review panel made up of ex-officials to a weekly five-person Key Match Incidents one featuring one SFA representative, one SPFL official and three others with established careers in the game such as ex-players, managers or even members of the media.
Anything bringing in folk from outside the tent seems good and should buy the SFA a little more of the goodwill it most definitely needs.
However, having heard plenty of evidence from players, managers and even members of the Fourth Estate that they require more than a little brushing-up on the current Laws Of The Game, let’s hope Willie is keeping everyone on the straight and narrow in the video booth until this new project is successfully up and running.
Saints in need of some youthful impetus
GIVING Craig Levein a job after four years out of management was an odd decision by St Johnstone.
They were in a bit of soapy bubble at the time, mind you, and maybe felt an old head who knew the ropes might do the job. Giving him a contract until the summer of 2026 felt a bit much, though.
Listen, he did OK. He kept them up last season. The absence of free-flowing tiki-taka was hardly a surprise. Neither was the fact he failed to last a year. His reign always appeared to lack a little of the oomph of old.
New owner Adam Webb, to be wished a speedy return from impending chemotherapy, was always likely to want his own man at the helm and seems to have some ideas for jazzing up the Saints Experience – although demanding bevvy back in stadiums was a rather peculiar place to start.
St Johnstone does need a rocket up it. The foundations are there for a really strong community club, but their punters really need something to rally behind and get them properly excited.
First up should be a younger, ambitious head coach with a sense of urgency – not necessarily from these shores – instead of another of the usual characters from all our yesterdays.