What Brendan Rodgers really thinks about new Celtic midfielder Arne Engels

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers had a busy summer adding seven fresh faces to his squad to tackle the heavy domestic and European fixtures this season.

Spending upwards of £30m, Rodgers added Kasper Schmeichel, Viljami Sinisalo, Arne Engels, Alex Valle, Auston Trusty, Paulo Bernardo and Adam Idah to the Celtic ranks.

With all but one now having made their debuts for the club, Asim Rabbani of A Celtic State of Mind shared a chat he had with Rodgers about one of the summer signings that put ‘a glow’ in the Hoops gaffer’s eyes.

Arne Engels is ‘the guy’ Brendan Rodgers wanted

Bumping into Brendan Rodgers on a chance encounter, Asim said that Rodgers was buzzing talking about £11m man, Arne Engels.

Asim said (A Celtic State of Mind), “So it was the day after the Champions League game. And I see Brendan Rodgers walk out of the place and he was, I don’t know what he was doing. So about 10 minutes later, I saw him walk out and I was like, I’ve got to go up to him.

“So he walked out the premises and then I just kind of went out and I was like, Brendan, and he turned around and straight away just came over.

“I don’t know if he maybe recognized me from previous press conferences or just his mannerisms. He was so warm and bright and down for a chat.

“So Rodgers, that’s one of his strengths. And it’s something I actually said to him when I met him. When we were talking about Arne Engels, and you could see the glow in his eyes just talking about him, saying, ‘When I first came in, I said the kind of player I wanted was someone with physicality, athleticism and dynamism’.

“And he goes, ‘This is it. This is the kind of guy that we wanted’”.

Engels has been an excellent addition to the Celtic squad this summer. Two goals and two assists in four appearances has been a superb return from the Belgian international so far.

And to think, he’s still settling into the club. There is no doubt Engels will be a proper player for Celtic and judging by how Rodgers talks about him, the Celtic boss seems to think so too.