Another Record hack proves that they don’t have a clue what’s happening at Celtic.

It takes gall to write a piece like Scott Burns’ latest in The Daily Record and pretend it counts as journalism. The premise? That Arne Engels, barely in the door at Celtic Park, is suddenly “likely to be sold” because there’s alleged interest from Italy and the hypothetical fee might rise to something approaching what we got for Matt O’Riley. That’s not journalism. That’s Burns dabbling in fiction.

Let’s start with the obvious. Arne Engels has not even been at Celtic for a full calendar year. He was brought in as part of a specific recruitment strategy—young, talented, versatile, and with bags of potential to develop. This is not the profile of a player you flip for a quick profit before he’s even had time to properly settle in Scotland, never mind establish himself as an integral part of the side.

If you believe this club wants to do that, then you’ve not been paying attention—or worse, you have, and you’re just wilfully ignoring the facts for the sake of a “scoop.” If Atalanta or another club wants to pay a major fee after what many in the media think has been a solid but unspectacular first season here then what will they want to pay when he’s been here a while and settled into the team?

This story is built on the flimsiest of premises: alleged interest. Not a bid. Not concrete negotiations. Not even credible quotes from a source inside either club. Just vague rumblings from Italy that a team might be interested.

In a post-Bosman world where every agent worth their salt is constantly trying to up their client’s value or stir interest to gain leverage, “interest” means nothing. It’s white noise. Yet to Burns, it’s cause to type up a piece claiming Engels is practically halfway out the door. What a joke.

There’s an arrogance in articles like this that really sticks in the craw. Burns doesn’t claim Celtic are considering a sale. He doesn’t present this as speculation. No, he dresses it up as something approaching fact: that if an offer “approaching the fee for O’Riley” comes in, Engels is “likely to be sold.”

Says who? What insight does Scott Burns possess into the internal thinking of Celtic Football Club that gives him the authority to make such a claim?

Spoiler alert: none whatsoever.

It’s the assumption that really gets me.

This idea that Celtic are some sort of cash-and-carry outlet, just waiting for the first decent bid to come in so we can offload players like supermarket stock nearing its sell-by date is prevalent in our media. It is also rubbish.

If that was the case, half of this first team squad would have been shipped out long ago. That mindset might be appropriate when discussing certain clubs with no long-term planning or proper football structure—but that is not how Celtic operates, especially under Brendan Rodgers.

Even the sale of Kyogo could be defended on the grounds that the player wanted the move. Nobody who wants to stay is getting sold here, and Engels is already talking about how much more he wants to achieve. We are offering Maeda and Kuhn new deals, because we want them to stay more than we want the big fees for them … why would we want to let Engels go if he’s not interested in a move?

Burns lazily draws a parallel with the Matt O’Riley sale, and it tells you everything you need to know about the lack of depth in his understanding of what happened there. O’Riley was sold for a record fee after several years at the club, a pile of man-of-the-match awards, multiple trophies, and genuine interest from several top leagues. He had stayed through interest from Italy the previous summer, and so when he left he did so with our blessing and at a premium—after developing into one of the most important players in the league.

Arne Engels, for all his promise, is not there yet. He might be in the future. That’s the point. We signed him to see him get better. He’s had some good games, shown flashes, and he’s clearly got tools that Rodgers and the coaching staff like. But he’s still being moulded. No competent club signs a player in that bracket only to punt him the moment someone abroad blinks in his direction.

You craft him the way we crafted O’Riley. Then the big bucks come. O’Riley made us an enormous profit. There is no reason that Engels won’t make us a profit on that scale. We’re leaving millions on the table to sell him before he’s ready.

And yet, that’s what Burns would have you believe: that a club trying to build a proper football structure, that hired a manager with a mandate to develop and improve talent, would toss all that aside for a quick payday. What utter rot.

It’s laughable to suggest the fee would be in the region of what we got for O’Riley anyway. Even if a Serie A club were interested, they’re not likely to go into the same financial ballpark for a player still making his way in the Scottish Premiership. Burns either doesn’t understand the economics of the market or he’s counting on his readers not to. It’s a false equivalency designed to sell papers or get clicks. Nothing more.

The article reeks of a need to fill column inches during a quiet spell. There’s no meaningful insight, no investigative work, not even an attempt to mask the absence of facts with thoughtful analysis. It’s fast-food football writing—greasy, lazy, and leaves you feeling a bit sick after reading it.

Here’s the real context that Burns either ignores or doesn’t care to address: Celtic are under no pressure to sell. Engels is on a long contract. There are no whispers from inside Lennoxtown that he’s unsettled, no talk of a rift or dressing room issues. In fact, everything – including his own comments – points to a player who’s focused, involved, and very much part of Rodgers’ plans moving forward.

We’ve seen this script before, haven’t we?

Young player at Celtic shows promise. Player is linked—flimsily—with clubs in England or the continent. Scottish press jumps on it and turns “admiring glances” into “impending bids” and “likely departures.”

Some think the intention is to plant doubt, stoke unrest, and make Celtic look like a club you can destabilise with a tap on the window. I don’t know if it’s deliberate mischief-making or just plain incompetence anymore. Probably a bit of both. Either way, it’s a disservice to the readers, the player, and the club.

And let’s not pretend this doesn’t follow a well-worn path in Scottish media. Celtic can’t win. We hold onto players? We, and they, lack ambition. We sell players? We’re a selling club. We buy young talent? We’re hoarding projects. We promote from within? It’s a lack of investment. It’s predictable. It’s boring.

The one thing that does amuse me is this idea that Arne is wanted and yet the only “links” to Raskin are farcical suggestions that he is fancied by Leeds, a subject I will be returning to over the next few days as I think there are very interesting dynamics at play there which are worth exploring properly.

I said that the profit will make on the day that we do sell Engels will dwarf entirely any fee they are likely to get for their golden boy. The one thing Burns has confirmed is that Engels is already generating interest from the top leagues; why wouldn’t he be? His pedigree is almost perfect.

Arne Engels will leave Celtic one day, sure.

But not now. Not this way.

Until then, perhaps Scott Burns and his pals might want to find some real news to report on—or at the very least, stop pretending they know what’s going on inside Celtic Park when it’s painfully obvious they don’t have a clue.