Celtic Have 48 Hours To Show They Planned For Arne Engels’ Exit – Gineitis And Sigur Signing Would Confirm We Have Learned Our Lessons

There is one thing I want to clear up immediately when it comes to Celtic’s midfield and the departure of Arne Engels.

Mika Baur is not his replacement.

I said before Baur arrived that I believed Celtic’s interest in the German midfielder was much more closely connected to the future of Reo Hatate, and nothing I have seen since has changed my mind. If anything, his first involvement at Tannadice and the reporting surrounding his arrival has strengthened that belief.

Listening to various other Celtic podcasts and browsing X, then you can see there is no doubt many have started to agree with the view Mika is cut from a similar cloth to that of our Japanese midfielder.

Hatate, when fit, firing and fully engaged, has been a fantastic footballer for Celtic. At his best, there are very few midfielders in Scotland capable of doing what he does.

However, we have reached the stage where replacing him makes sense.

The irony is that Celtic appear to have done exactly what supporters have been demanding from them for years – acted before the problem actually arrives.

Proactive work from the Celtic Board? Never!

Baur was signed from Paderborn for a potential £6.8m fee, after playing an important role in their promotion to the Bundesliga. His arrival paves the way for the exit of Reo.

If Hatate leaves before the window closes, Celtic haven’t waited until the final few days of August before frantically searching for somebody capable of taking his place. Baur is already through the door, already training and, importantly, already registered for Europe.

Great.

But none of that solves the Arne Engels problem.

Engels has now joined West Ham in a reported £22million deal. That represents another enormous piece of business financially for Celtic, but the timing of it is what irritates me.

Celtic play LASK at Celtic Park on Wednesday night in the first leg of a Champions League play-off which will determine whether the club reaches the league phase of Europe’s biggest competition.

I speculated on The Bhoycie Bus weeks ago that Celtic would blink if they got an acceptable offer for Arne or Alistair Johnstone up to even the night before the first qualifier.

Engels would have been one of my first names on the team sheet.

Hatate wouldn’t necessarily have been.

That difference matters.

Engels was actually named in Celtic’s original 25-man squad for the LASK tie. Days later he’s a West Ham player. Meanwhile Johnston isn’t in that squad because of injury, leaving Celtic thinner in another area going into the two most financially significant matches of their season.

This is why supporters shouldn’t allow Baur’s arrival to be retrospectively presented as Celtic having planned for Engels leaving.

They are two different situations.

Baur looks like succession planning for Hatate.

Engels needs replacing separately.

The good news is that Celtic haven’t completely run out of road yet. Sort of.

Clubs involved in qualifying and the play-offs can register a maximum of two new eligible players after the normal List A deadline. Those registrations have to be completed by midnight on the day before the relevant first-leg match.

Celtic therefore still have an opportunity to make what I’ll call two “wild card signings” before Wednesday night’s game.

And there are two names currently being linked who, for me, make an awful lot of sense.

Gvidas Gineitis is the first.

The 22-year-old Lithuanian International is already an established Serie A midfielder with Torino. He is 6″2, left-footed and made 29 Serie A appearances last season.

When I look at him physically, I see something much closer to the profile Celtic have just lost and that would fit my interpretation of Martin O’Neill would be looking for in a player.

I’m not claiming Gineitis is Arne Engels 2.0. That would be ridiculous without seeing him playing regularly for Celtic. Engels brought his own qualities and had developed significantly during his time in Glasgow in my opinion.

But if we’re discussing profiles rather than pretending every central midfielder is interchangeable, Gineitis makes sense.

There is also something about that profile which feels very Martin O’Neill.

Think back to O’Neill’s first Celtic side between 2000 and 2005. He has always appreciated players who combine ability with physical presence. Modern football has obviously changed enormously since then, but that fundamental attraction to players capable of competing physically as well as technically hasn’t disappeared.

Gineitis is to my mind what an O'[Neill signing looks and feels like.

Then there is Niko Sigur.

This one interests me for a completely different reason.

Sigur is also 22 and plays for Hajduk Split. He is a Canadian international who can operate primarily as a defensive midfielder but also at right-back.

That gives Celtic something they currently don’t have enough of: genuine positional flexibility without an obvious collapse in quality when somebody moves position

I have written several time on Celtic poaching players from Leagues where we can be the big fish.

The Croatian League represents that, somewhere Celtic could and should swagger into and pluck the cream of the crop if they so wish.

And this is where the two-signing UEFA allowance becomes fascinating.

Why choose?

Go and get both.

Bring Gineitis in as the midfielder capable of replacing much of the physical and technical profile lost with Engels. Bring Sigur in and suddenly you have another holding-midfield option who can also provide meaningful competition and cover at right-back while Johnston recovers.

Then I really would look at Celtic’s business and say – fair enough, you are still to slow to the party but the levels of re-investment this Summer are satisfactory for the first time in years, bravo.

Engels has gone for £22million, but Celtic have used that departure to strengthen the overall squad rather than simply weakening Wednesday night’s starting XI and pointing towards a player they had already signed as the replacement.

That’s the difference between trading players and building a football team.

Team sheets before balance sheets.

What Celtic cannot do is pretend one piece of forward planning covers two departures.

The club deserve credit when they act proactively. Signing Baur before Hatate has left is precisely the sort of recruitment I’ve wanted to see Celtic doing.

But that actually makes the Engels situation more frustrating.

They clearly understand the concept.

So why sell a first-choice midfielder for £22million immediately before a Champions League play-off without having his replacement standing beside him at Lennoxtown?

Wednesday night isn’t a hypothetical date buried somewhere in September.

It’s here.

LASK are coming to Celtic Park on 19 August, with a place in the Champions League league phase at stake.

Celtic still have a small window in which to change the entire complexion of this situation.

Gineitis alone would help.

Sigur alone would improve the squad.

The Oxlade-Chamberlain situation on top of it all with him being ruled out of BOTH qualifers and Celtic apparently being unaware compounds the need for a “wildcard” or 2 before Wednesday.

All Celtic are missing now is time.

And after choosing to sell Arne Engels four days before LASK, they can’t complain that the clock is ticking.

Mika Baur replaced the problem Celtic knew was coming. Now Celtic have until Tuesday night to replace the player they chose to sell.

Keep Your Eyes On The Board.