There is no “rivalry” between Celtic’s Belgian and the one across town.

So, Arne Engels did a media thing yesterday and was asked about a so-called rivalry with Nico Raskin. Get this straight—no such rivalry exists, and Arne himself laughed it off. And why shouldn’t he laugh it off?

The idea is just dumb. Nobody at Celtic is thinking about this in that way. Nobody at Celtic is even considering that a rivalry. There is no rivalry between a single one of our players and a single one of theirs.

What is this obsession with trying to judge our players by the standards of theirs and inventing all these little phoney rivalries?

Our team is miles ahead of theirs. Our players are miles better than theirs. The Team of the Year has seven of our players in it, and the fact that Raskin’s in there doesn’t mean a damn thing. The only way these two are comparable is that they have the same nationality.

But our former centre-back Rafael had the same nationality as Vinícius Júnior. Nobody would compare the two because of it. Nobody would try to pretend that there’s any similarity between the players.

This isn’t about the position they play either, because they play entirely different positions. So the comparison is nonsensical. But the media needs a poster boy over there. They need somebody to bum up. And Raskin is it.

In a season of failure, he and John Souttar are the only ones who made the Team of the Year. And as I said in my piece on that very subject, I would dispute both of them.

The success of our players is measured in our Champions League finish and in the fact that we’re on the brink of a treble. There is no other currency that matters. Arne Engels, in his first season at Celtic, is going to walk away a three medal winner if everything goes according to plan. That is a fantastic start to his time here.

He’s already made giant strides and as he gets a full summer under him and continues to enhance his knowledge of how we play and what the manager expects of him—perhaps even slots into a brand-new permanent position in the team—we’ll see the best of him.

Like Idah, he is stalked on all sides by people questioning his price tag.

And like Idah, I have to remind people that he’s not the one who set that price tag in the first place. There are people who will never be satisfied with what big Idah does in a Celtic shirt.

I couldn’t care less how they feel, and I hope that Idah doesn’t care how they feel. And I know the manager absolutely doesn’t care how they feel, because he is far more qualified than they are and knows exactly what Idah brings to the team every time he’s in the side. It is tiresome having to defend that guy all the time.

Engels is even more self-confident than Idah, and he made that plain when he was asked about his own price tag—even bigger than Idah’s, a club record fee.

“I don’t care (about it)… I’m here to just perform and to get better. I’m still young, I still need to learn. I think I have good numbers and good performances. It’s not about me, it’s about the team. I want to be here to help the team and win trophies.”

There’s what it’s all about. Right there is the mood that Rodgers has infused in this team and the philosophy that guides everything we do. They’re not glory seekers here. There are no individuals out for themselves—or if they are, they keep that in moderation.

Everybody at Celtic talks about the team ethic.

Everybody at Celtic talks about putting the team first.

And as long as the team is winning, as long as the trophies are mounting up, as long as these guys are all getting their winners’ medals—that’s all they care about.

And that’s all they should care about.

People can ask about the rivalry between our players and theirs when they’ve won as much as ours have.

When Arne has proved himself in a way no-one will argue with, the whole narrative around him will change. When it comes to attracting interest from other clubs—clubs abroad—that interest will be real, not the phoney-baloney stuff that’s appearing in the press about their midfielder.

When he does leave Celtic, it will be for a momentous fee that will make what we paid for him look like chump change. That is my prediction about Arne, because he’s had a very good first season and he’s only going to improve.

His big stage is going to be the Champions League next season—provided we back the manager properly and actually get there.

But if we do, that is where we’re going to see the best of Arne Engels, and the best of a lot of other players in this team. By the time next season finishes, we’ll know that he’s worth every penny we paid. Some of us already have no doubt on that score.

Our latest podcast is up now … it’s called Treble Yell.