Arne Engels has revealed that the Celtic players are desperate to give Martin O’Neill the send-off he deserves this evening at Celtic Park in the Scottish Premiership match against Dundee…

Like all the Celtic players who have had a chance to speak about Martin O’Neill’s six weeks in charge of Celtic, Engels has enjoyed the experience of working with the legendary Celtic figure.

“It has been really enjoyable, of course it has,” Engels said at yesterday’s pre-match media conference. “He’s done amazing work but everybody in the staff has done amazing. Everyone has a really good feeling about what he did here and there is one more game, probably, to go so we want to end it really well for him. Hopefully we can do that.

“We are just focused on the game and everybody wants to end it well as they deserve to have an amazing goodbye but the focus is on Dundee and we can’t wait to start that game really well,” Engels said.

Looking back to the game at Easter Road on Sunday, where Engels scored with a header which turned out to be the winner, he admits he was surprised to learn from his captain that he’s scored because he missed it after taking a high boot in the face.

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“I didn’t actually know that I’d scored,” Arne Engels 

“I didn’t actually know that I’d scored,” Arne said. “I just felt a hard knock on my nose as I went down. Callum McGregor was the person who told me it was a goal because I didn’t know myself so I was a bit surprised.

“I was also a bit worried about my nose, but thankfully it’s fine. I have never broken a bone before so I don’t know what that feels like. I just felt some blood and it wasn’t the best feeling.”

Engels revealed that scoring with his head is something or a rarity for him but hopefully it’s now something he’ll add to his game rather than being a one off. Getting on the end of crosses like Yang’s while arriving late in the box is almost Stan Petrov like and you can imagine Martin O’Neill thinking the same thing.

“I haven’t scored many goals with my head. There was one in Germany that was also important, against Wolfsburg at home. But there’s not been many so that was pleasing. I can do it if I need to,” Arne said.

He added: “It’s a good feeling, whether it’s with the head, the knee or the foot. But this one was a pretty good one so it was pleasing.”

Doing well with Celtic this season was always going to be a priority for Engels with the World Cup draw upcoming and the chance to win a place in the squad going to be determined by his performances and minutes at Celtic.

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Arne Engels eyes World Cup place in Belgium squad 

“The World Cup is always there. It would be an amazing achievement by myself to get there. It’s always nice to play for your country. It’s up to me to get the performances in and let everybody see that I am ready for it. It’s not up to me to decide.

“But it’s up to me to make good performances and to score goals and make assists. So we’ll see what happens, but I will be trying my best to do that, for sure,” Arne  said.

Engels at the time of the media conference yesterday lunchtime was still unsure on what Martin O’Neill position would be after tonight’s match, as he spoke to the media before the interim Celtic manager broke the news that this would be is last game as the new manager was going to arrive shortly.

Engels on dressing room chats on Wilfried Nancy and rumoured Celtic signings 

The Celtic midfielder did however talk about how the player discuss players being linked with the club during the transfer windows and also have been discussing the managerial candidates ahead of the focus being solely directed at Wilfried Nancy as everyone regarded him as the Board’s choice.  Nancy will be here tomorrow or perhaps Friday and will be in the Celtic dugout on Sunday when Celtic take on Hearts in the league.

“Of course, we are going to talk about things that we see in the media,” Engels said. “Everybody can see what’s been going on but I’ve got no idea when it’s going to be done. I’m sorry to say I have literally got no idea.

“Of course, we speak about the name that I going around and I’ve only heard good and positive things. Everybody is looking forward to it.”

Arne though admitted that the players had NOT been updated on Nancy’s imminent arrive before he walked into the media room at Lennoxtown. That has probably now happened and Martin O’Neill will this evening say his goodbyes to the players and give then his own update on what’s next for them.

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“No, not yet. We don’t know anything yet, that’s why I’m saying that I don’t even know if it’s the last game for Martin. We don’t know anything about the new manager coming in. We know that there will be a new manager coming in, but who is it going to be? I don’t really know,” Arne admitted.

He added: “Of course, we are going to talk about the names that are put into the carousel, every time. t’s also in the transfer window, that you see names coming by, obviously you talk about some names. Not all of them, of course, but obviously, we talked about some names in the dressing room. Obviously, there have only been positive talks about all the managers that came into that.

“We are in a good place now, and think it’s perfect timing now [for the new manager to come in]. Like you said, you have Hearts over the weekend, and then some nice games after that.”

Watch Arne Engels media conference ahead of tonight’s match at Celtic Park against Dundee below…

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