Callum McGregor praises Celtic teammate Arne Engels

Among those who have drastically improved their performances under O’Neill’s guidance is Engels, the £11 million Belgian midfielder who has gone from strength to strength in recent weeks.

Engels sealed the result with a courageous, powerful header for Celtic’s second goal at the weekend at Easter Road – taking a stray boot from Jamie McGrath in the process – just a minute after Daizen Maeda had opened the scoring.

The 22-year-old was equally impressive last Thursday at De Kuip, playing an influential role in the Hoops’ 3-1 Europa League victory over Feyenoord in Rotterdam. McGregor was lavish in his admiration for his midfield partner, whose progress under O’Neill has become a notable storyline over the course of the last month.

Speaking via Daily Record, McGregor said: “Listen, I love Arne, he’s some player for a kid, maybe 22 now. He was 21 when he came in with a big price tag last year.

“Maybe people unfairly judge him based on the price tag, but I think he’s a tremendous player who plays with a big heart and big energy and will always get better because he has the right attitude.”

“So, it’s our job to make him continue to grow. I was delighted for him to get his goal against Hibs. He was outstanding on Thursday night, so hopefully he recovers, and we can go again on Wednesday.”

The Celtic captain was well aware of how different this trip to Edinburgh felt compared with October’s 3–1 loss to Hearts at Tynecastle – a match that marked the campaign’s nadir, leaving Celtic eight points behind the Jambos. Since then, the turnaround has been nothing short of remarkable.

The 32 year-old said: “Ultimately, the performances and the results have picked up since then, but it was really early on; we had so much football to be played.”

“I think I said that that day as well — we were only nine games in. We’re now only 13 games in, so there’s still a lot of football, there’s still a lot that can go right, can go wrong.”

“So, we just have to stay on the track, we keep looking at ourselves, we keep trying to improve, and every time we get a chance to play a game, can we win?”

Conor Spence