Shaun Maloney has revealed that he had a heart-o-heart with Arne Engels on Saturday.
The stand-in boss has had a full diary due to the absence of Martin O’Neill following a midweek hospital stay.
Ether side of that transfer speculation has been swarming around Engels with claims of increased offers from West Ham.
Maloney has been forced into a number of roles since taking up the Professional Pathways Manager job a year ago.
From recruitment to laying on training sessions the former Hibs and Wigan boss has hardly had a moment to himself.
Providing a pep talk to a player at the centre of transfer talks is another task on his job description.
Without O’Neill in the dug-out the pressure was very much on Maloney to maintain Celtic’s winning.
Victory at Kilmarnock made it 11 on the bounce for Celtic. To achieve that Engels required some answers from his stand-in boss.
The Celtic Way reports:
QUESTION: In terms of Engels and Johnston, how do you anticipate that going this week? Is it about ignoring the phone calls until after LASK?
MALONEY:
I think Michael and Martin will probably be able to tell you the exact plan or strategy around any of the outgoings in terms of related to the Champions League, the Champions League games.
I think Arne today was as good as I’ve seen him. I thought he was excellent at the end of last season. I think it’s been hard for him in pre-season.
He’s been with us all the time. He wasn’t with the national team. So it’s not been an easy summer for him.
I spoke to him. I’ll be honest, he spoke to me. He wanted to see me yesterday. And he was really strong on wanting to put a performance out today.
So I thought him and McGregor were brilliant in the middle of the pitch. Arne was… I’m a huge fan of Arne today. He showed everything that he had.
ENGELS SEEKS OUT MALONEY CHAT
He arrived at Celtic aged 20 and was instantly burdened with being the club’s record signing.
Instantly he settled in, playing his part in Celtic’s best Champions League run in over a decade.
With Kyogo Furuhashi, Adam Idah, Nicolas Kuhn and Daizen Maeda all sold more responsibility has fallen on the reduced core of players remaining from that side.
The next fortnight will go a long way to defining Celtic’s season with the matches against LASK critical.
Celtic will lean heavily on the ‘experience’ of a 22-year-old to get them through those matches.
It is only natural that he will have some thoughts on a move away from Celtic.
His talk with Maloney might provide the reassurances needed for two big Celtic performances before his future is decided.
