Premier League clubs have begun to circle around Celtic midfielder Arne Engels, as our club faces a potentially testing summer of change… Engels was the subject of a £25 million bid from two-time European Cup winners Nottingham Forest on the January Window Deadline Day and it appears that interest hasn’t gone away. At that time, Celtic could not source an adequate replacement for the man that many critics asserted was a waste of money, when Brendan Rodgers shelled out £11.5 million to bring him to Paradise from the Bundesliga. Celtic paid FC Augsburg £11.5m for Arne Engels Engels was only…
Author: Paul Gillespie
Scotland at the weekend sealed a 4-0 victory over Bolivia to finish their 2026 World Cup warm-up phase with a goal scoring flourish… The national team are over in the USA just now setting up preparations for the big international tournament kicking-off this coming week. The competition starts this Thursday, 11 June, with Scotland set to play three days later against Haiti, in their opening gambit over in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Steve Clarke’s Scotland side scoring goals going into World Cup Steve Clarke saw his men get past Curaçao last Saturday, with a 4-1 victory at Hampden Park…
A potential Celtic target looks set to join Dutch giants Ajax. Michael Noonan had been said to be a possible option for the Hoops, as they look to undergo a summer of major upheaval and surgery on a squad that just managed to cling on domestically last term… The Bhoys faced a potentially horrific end to the campaign, had it not been for the magnificent work of Martin O’Neill and his backroom staff, with Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham in particular aiding the Irishman in his quest for another title at Paradise. Beating Hearts and Rangers to the punch After…
Liam Scales and Alistair Johnston had to settle for a share of the spoils in Ireland and Canada’s friendly warm-up match, before the World Cup starts this week… Both men ended the season as Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup winners, following an incredibly fraught campaign that saw the manager change three times, with two interim spells with fellow Hearts-breaker and the Rangers conqueror, Martin O’Neill. Liam Scales full of praise for his Celtic teammate Scales had spoken earlier in the week about how Johnston was an important member of the squad and a major voice in the changing room, when…
Celtic look set to make a significant profit on another failed project signing, in the form of the rarely spotted Hayato Inamura… The full-back was signed last summer from Japanese side Albirex Nigata, for around £250,000 at the time. Now though, it seems that the recently crowned Scottish Premiership winners will be remunerated several times over for a player who barely kicked a ball in Glasgow. Inamura was just one of a number of the fabled “club signings” throughout the years and could be categorised alongside many others who had no realistic chance of making the grade at Celtic Park.…
Stiliyan Petrov has admitted his surprise at Celtic giving Martin O’Neill the managers job full-time… The Irishman was given the gig after two interim spells this season, which resulted in a Scottish Premiership crown and Scottish Cup to accompany it this May. O’Neill’s gravitas and know-how managed to save the club from a guaranteed empty trophy room at one point, after the dismissal of Brendan Rodgers and then the Wilfred Nancy interregnum either side of the Kilrea man’s spells in the Parkhead dugout. The French coach who arrived from the MLS nearly caused an extinction-level event at Paradise, after O’Neill…
With Martin O’Neill now set to be officially announced tomorrow after a long and “thorough” search for a manager, attention invariably turns to the summer recruitment plans and how we go about fixing a playing squad that managed to limp over the line domestically, with European progress a complete non-starter last term… The support craves more than anything to mix it up with the big boys and there is another golden ticket to be had in the UEFA Champions League play-offs this August, IF we get our act together and try and behave like a semi-coherent football club. Easier said…
Celtic will face competition in their quest to land French-based forward Taïryk Arconte… The club is fresh off the back of appointing Double-winner Martin O’Neill as manager, and as many have speculated, the Hoops will require major surgery this close season if we are to pull ourselves out of the rut we self-manufactured last term. Several high-profile stars are set to move on, with the likes of Daizen Maeda, Arne Engels, Reo Hatate, and Benjamin Nygren all thought to be either heading for the exit door or have strong interest in their services from elsewhere. With that in mind, Celtic…
Reo Hatate has informed Celtic of his desire to leave the football club this summer transfer window… The Japanese star has had a fall from grace recently at the club where he has made his name in European football, with Martin O’Neill favouring other players over the man who had become a permanent fixture in the Hoops midfield throughout the last few years. Brought to these shores by Ange Postecoglou in the winter transfer window of 2022, along with compatriots Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi, Hatate had many questioning whether or not he would be successful, becoming professional much later…
Benjamin Nygren has remained coy on his Celtic future, despite only having played one season at Paradise… The Swedish playmaker was on international duty lately with his country, during which he suffered an injury scare in the World Cup warm-up match, which finished in a 2-2 draw with Greece. Nygren enjoyed a sensational campaign in front of goal with the Hoops this year, managing to hit 21 goals for the Scottish Premiership title holders in 58 games. A snip at £1.3 million from Danish side Nordsjaelland, he has repaid that fee ten times over with his goal contributions from the…
Amidst the news that Martin O’Neill has agreed to become the Celtic manager on a full-time basis, following a successful interim spell which culminated in a domestic Double, attention quickly turned to who O’Neill would be bringing into the football club to support his new endeavours on the touchline… As we now know, the Irishman is set to continue on with the same backroom team, which helped him get the title and Scottish Cup over the line in the most dramatic of circumstances. Shaun Maloney, Mark Fotheringham, Stephen McManus and Gavin Strachan are set to remain in post, in what…
Chris Sutton has once again used his weekly column to question, if not scrutinise, the current Celtic hierarchy and their lack of transparency about where the club intends to go medium to long-term… With a campaign just finished that saw a 74-year-old Martin O’Neill save us from the dire straits that those above had put us in, their answer to all our worries was to give the ageing manager the gig on a short deal, putting a plaster over things yet again. The cycle at Celtic Park seems forever chained to short-termism in the decisions made at the top of…
“I came in in January, and I have enjoyed every minute of it,” Michael McGovern on his Celtic return… Michael McGovern has admitted he has loved every minute of his time back at the club where he played as a younger man and that working with Martin O’Neill has been a dream come true. The Irish coach returned to the Parkhead outift in January of this year, helping aid Martin O’Neill’s assault on the Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup in his second interim spell of the campaign. O’Neill stepped in to save the club’s hierarchy on two occasions throughout the…
Former Celtic star Calvin Miller has joined Heart of Midlothian from Falkirk this close season. The winger enjoyed a tremendous campaign at the Bairns under ex-Hoops scout and coach John McGlynn, who funnily enough managed Hearts at one time too, which saw him targeted for a move to the Scottish Premiership runners-up. There had been rumours doing the rounds throughout the January transfer window that Miller was being eyed for a return to Paradise under Martin O’Neill, as options began to disappear as usual, towards the end of our bumbling business dealings. After thoughts of Fares Ghedjemis and Damir Redzic,…
Martin O’Neill is set to be honoured in his hometown of Kilrea, with the Irishman set to be awarded the Freedom of the Borough and also a plaque in commemoration of his outstanding contributions to football and sport more generally… The 74-year-old veteran boss returned to Celtic Park twice this last year, to help save the club from what was almost certainly a catastrophic event. The principal shareholder had dispensed with Brendan Rodgers’ services in October, after another infamous summer of discontent in relation to recruitment and the inner machinations of the footballing operation (or lack thereof). Martin answered the…
Liam Scales has heaped praise on his Celtic teammate Alistair Johnston, revealing how highly regarded he is within the squad… The Irishman and his teammate will come up against each other this weekend, when Ireland face Canada over in Montreal in a friendly warm-up match, before the World Cup kicks off in earnest on 11 June. Scales and Johnston both reveled in the title celebrations at Paradise a few weeks ago, when all the emotion came to the fore for everyone on an electrifying afternoon in Glasgow’s East End. After a tumultuous season which had many trials and tribulations for…
Ilkay Gundogan has been the latest player to rave about the atmosphere at Celtic Park on a big Champions League night… The former Manchester City Treble-winning midfielder is currently enjoying his football in Turkey with Galatasaray, following spells in Spain, England and Germany. Having forged a glittering career in the game, Gundogan has had the privilege of playing in some fantastic stadia throughout that time period. Winning just about everything there is to win in football, the German has won the UEFA Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and has featured at numerous Euros and FIFA World Cups. It’s fair…
Luis Palma is set to complete a permanent move to Polish side Lech Poznan, after Celtic reportedly told the Ekstraklasa outift to take-it-or-leave-it on the pre-agreed option-to-buy to fee in the original deal last summer… Celtic to recoup £3.5 million Luis Palma fee paid to Aris Thessaloniki in 2023 The Honduran international now looks et to put pen-to-paper on a three-year deal which will keep him in Poland for the foreseeable future, whilst netting the Hoops a sum which will see them not stand to lose anything on the player, having shelled out £3.5 million to bring the forward from…
Whilst the ongoing discussions are taking place between Celtic and potential managerial candidates – with constructive talks having taken place between the hierarchy and Robbie Keane recently and with Martin O’Neill due for a sit down too – Tam McManus reckons principal shareholder Dermot Desmond will come back to what he knows this time around… Celtic parted ways with Brendan Rodgers last October and it set in motion a season full of angst and upheaval, particularly surrounding the managers job. Rodgers left again under another cloud Martin O’Neill was drafted in to stem the bleeding at first when Rodgers left…
Chris Sutton has come out and questioned whether or not Celtic should be trying to sign Marcelo Saracchi, after the Boca Juniors star’s successful loan spell in Glasgow came to an end… The Uruguayan was brought to provide cover for Kieran Tierney The Uruguayan was brought to the club last summer on a season-long loan deal, providing adequate back-up to Kieran Tierney throughout a bonkers campaign… The former RB Leipzig full-back looked assured and experienced in the role, when deputising for the Scottish international, who was working his way back to peak fitness for a substantial amount of time on his…