Not everyone has called him a roaring success but Engels is feeling good with two trophies in the bag already
Accountability is a desirable trait to have when you are the name on everyone’s lips.
And Arne Engels is all for answering the big questions as he reflects on an eventful first season as Celtic’s all-time record signing.
His £11million fee to Augsburg often precedes him with his performances coming under close scrutiny from punters and pundits alike. but a nomination for the SPFA Young Player of the Year award is another reminder of his obvious ability.
Hearts stars Lawrence Shankland and Craig Halkett infamously attempted to use his eight-figure price tag to throw him off before he coolly slammed home a penalty in September
The 21-year-old isn’t the type to crumble, of course, and he’s become as much a regular in meeting the media as he has a fixture on the pitch.
His 10 goals and 12 assists hint at an ascending player fresh off an impressive display in the 5-0 pasting of Dundee United which sealed the Belgian’s first title in Scottish football.
Is he happy with displays but also showed off the steely resolve within which he believes guarantees even more to come.
Speaking after receiving his nomination, Engels said: “Hopefully there’s more to come. I’m still 21 and that’s why I’m the young player.
“There’s hopefully still more to come. Like I said, I’m working every day. I’m trying to do my best. I think I had a decent season. Not everybody is telling this, but for me I think I had a decent season. Already two trophies, so I can’t really complain.”
Glasgow has proven an unforgiving football city for many a player before Engels but the Belgian international appears born to deal with the rigours and demands of playing for Celtic.
And he is utterly certain he is even more ready to deal with what comes with the trials and tribulations of life in the Glasgow goldfish bowl.
He added: “Yeah, 100 per cent. If you play for Celtic, there will always be people that have something to say or something to write.
“You need to deal with it. You need to be mentally really strong. I was already from the youth really strong in that (way).
‘”I’m just looking to myself and not really listening or reading stuff. I’m just looking to myself and trying to get better every day. I’m on a good path.”
Engels gets it and his understanding that anything other than victory underlines his spell in the Bundesliga with Augsburg was never going to be for the long-term.
The versatile midfielder was raised in Brugge’s finishing school Club NXT – a breeding ground for some of the finest players of a golden Belgian generation.
And bar the talent on the pitch, Engels is now offering answers which sound like has been trophy-mad skipper Callum McGregor’s apprentice.
On the need to win every single game, Engels said: “Yeah, of course. It’s not really nice to get a draw, to get a loss.
“It’s a bit true what you said that in Augsburg maybe it wasn’t really a big thing. But over here, you cannot lose. That’s also what we have in our mindset that you cannot lose a game.
“Even if you play 1-1, it’s a disaster for us also. Everybody is so down in the dressing room. That’s also a nice thing to see that everybody has the same kind of mindset and the same kind of winning mentality.
‘”That’s how it needs to be. I also said already, we cannot really lose games over here. We are that confident in ourselves that we have such a good team and such a good squad that we cannot lose games.”
Brendan Rodgers famously quipped Engels had left a “holiday camp” for a Glasgow pressure cooker and that viewpoint was never more clear in the eyes of Engels during a bonkers fixture run which forced Rodgers into rotation mode with three games per week
He added: “You have so many more games. It’s crazy how the schedule was a few months ago. Now it’s getting better. Now it’s just one game a week.
“I remember in November until March or something, every week was a midweek. That was also for me nice, but also really hard because you needed to switch on directly, going to recovery, going to the game again and doing all your stuff to be there on the pitch because you need to perform.
“Like you said, you cannot really lose a game, so you need to be there also in small games, not just in the big games because everybody will be there then. “
And back to that price tag, Engels exudes the air of a man who believes he’s worth every penny to the side who smashed their all-time fee to prise him away from the German top flight.
He added: “It’s not me that is paying it. I’m here to perform and to win titles and trophies. That’s why I’m here and that’s what we also did.
“It’s now for me to just perform and get better and then hopefully that transfer fee will not be that big.”