If it’s true that Celtic are looking at Arne Engels. He is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder, right-back or right-winger for Bundesliga club FC Augsburg, after watching his skills on YouTube, he certainly looks the real deal.
He’s the sort of player that Celtic are crying out for, being able to play in multiple positions is a definite plus in my book.
He dribbles, passes and holds the ball up really well and definitely knows where the goalmouth is.
And the good news is he’s young, born in 2003 and wouldn’t cost a fortune to bring in, OK I take that back as I’ve just read that Augsburg want £9m+. But he still could net Celtic a lot more than that down the road if he chooses to move on.
In my book, it’s still a win-win situation if Celtic want to splash the cash, but at £9m+, mmm it’s doubtful, unless Matt O’Riley moves on then it’s a different story.
I also think that Luke McCowan from Dundee would be a good signing for the team, not only because he is a decent player, but he would be a good super sub to fall back on. To have him on the bench would be a big plus.
Considering how much he would cost, it’s a no-brainer as he would definitely enhance the team.
Unfortunately we can see Arne Engels is a prospect who’d bring us on again but our board don’t think like football knowledgeable fans.
My betting is that we’ll get McCowan and that’ll be it.
We still need a starting central defender to step into Liam Scales’ role. If Rodgers spoke about “no time to sleep” in the market then he better get his finger out to sort out a Champions League quality central defender or we’ll be watching the same old story with our Champions League efforts.
I think that Celtic will only go in for Arne Engels if we lose Matt O’Riley simply because of the asking price that FC Augsburg have slapped on him.
But the problem with that scenario is, will he still be available? If not, we will be significantly weakened as a team.
Then we will have a situation where we’re scrambling around for a decent replacement before the window closes.
As far as Luke McCowan goes, we haven’t even enquired or put in an offer for his services, so how long will he be available?,
When we finally get our act together, he’ll probably have been snapped up.
Sorry for sounding all doom and gloom but that’s the situation as I see it.
Not long to go and we’ve not really improved on our squad depth since last season.
Hart left, Schmiechal came in, Bernardo and Idah,FINALLY signed permanent deals. Not much else going on for a manager who spoke about “not sleeping” in the market?
Hopefully our dreams come true in the next few days seeing a good central defender coming in as well as a quality left back and an attacking midfielder coming in on permanent contracts (after O’Riley goes) 
I can see where you’re coming from, Jeemo.
My way of looking at the situation is that Idah and Bernardo are new signings.
OK, they were here last season, but that was temporary, and now they are permanent, it gave us a chance to see what they could bring to the team, rather than bring them in and hope for the best.
We still have a while until the window closes, and I feel confident that we’ll see another couple of players come in.
I know it’s easy to say, but we need to be patient and trust BR to get the deals done.
Just my opinion.
Also, it’s looking like the Club that comes in for Matt O’Riley will have to have very deep pockets, now the price has increased to £25m plus £5m add-ons.
And I read that Atalanta have now ended their pursuit and are moving on to other targets.
In other words, there is still a chance Matt could be staying, as I’m sure he will want to test himself in the Champions League. 
I think if we can hold onto O’Riley in any capacity, that would be the biggest bit of business we’ll do in a long time.
If we’re pondering up to £10 million for a new replacement, why can’t we use around half of it to line O’Rileys pockets with a contract extension for the next 3 years? £5 or 6 million over 3 years would give him an extra £40k a week or so. Surely that’d keep him with us and be seen as a sound investment.
Even in 3 years he’ll only be around 26 years old. If we’ve not progressed by then, surely he’d be entitled to seek a move to a more successful club on the continent?
To be honest, If Matt decides to remain at Celtic it’s for one reason, that Champions League football is guaranteed, which not many clubs can promise.
On to another topic, just read that Atalanta made enquires regarding the availability of CCV.
They must be under the illusion that Celtic is their feeder club.
Why don’t they just **** off and leave our players alone?
It’s now being reported that Leicester City are looking at Hatate.
If we let O’Riley and Hatate go in the same window, it would be an act of unbridled stupidity.
What is it about Celtic that everyone wants to buy our players?
But the good news is that clubs are finally being told that Celtic is no longer a club that will sell its players on the cheap, you want to buy our players. You pay the price we want, or go shopping elsewhere, full stop.