ADAM IDAH, ARNE ENGELS’ CELTIC FUTURES ARE BRIGHT NO MATTER HOW HARD SOME TRY TO PUT THEM DOWN
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Apr 17
- 3 min read
It was nice to see Celtic Legend Stilian Petrov leap to the defence of Adam Idah yesterday, despite numerous attempts from the media to bait him into criticizing the Irish striker.
The Daily Record has frequently tried, in recent days, to make something out of the fact the Adam Idah has only scored once in his last 9 appearances for Celtic, and also take cheap shots at Celtic’s record signing Arne Engels wherever possible.
However, I firmly agree with Stilian Petrov on this. His son’s political choices are another story...
Adam Idah and Arne Engels didn’t pay their transfer fees, Celtic did
Much of the criticism of Idah and Engels stems from the fees paid for them.
Indeed, a combined fee of around 20 million pounds for two players seems like a massive investment.
Although, it is dwarfed by what most clubs in England routinely pay for, in my opinion, inferior players.
My major issue with this though, is that neither of these players had any control over the fees paid.
Indeed, both Arne Engels and Adam Idah ended up moving for inflated fees, because Celtic took far longer than was necessary to get the deals over the line.
We could probably have got Idah for about 40% less than we paid, had Celtic included a loan to buy option in his initial 6-month loan deal.
Engels was initially rumored to be available for a fee in the region of 8 or 9 million pounds.
However, the combination of media hype, Celtic’s slow movement in progressing the deal, and more than a fair bit of obstinance from his previous club inflated the fee.
Has Adam Idah been poor or is it just the case that Daizen Maeda has been quite unprecedentedly good since assuming the main striking role?
I’d argue it’s the latter. I knew from watching him play up front years ago for my local team Matsumoto Yamaga, who incidentally also wore green and white hoops that season, that Daizen was at his best as a center forward.
Considering the limited minutes that he’s had, I think Idah has been fine.
Particularly in Europe, he played a huge role in helping us progress in the Champions League with some crucial contributions.
Engels has, in my opinion, improved as the season has gone on. He clearly took time to adjust to the expectation, the intensity and the sheer volume of games at Celtic.
However, he looks far more assured now than he did a few months ago.
Critics will of course still say the players aren’t worth the money.
But let me ask them this?
Would you complain as much if we’d signed these players for something like 4 or 5 million each?
I don’t think so. The criticism stems from the prices Celtic paid. That isn’t fair to the players.
We wanted to Celtic to invest and show ambition at the beginning of this season.
Although it took longer than I would have liked to get these deals done, in the end The Celtic Board stepped up and got it done.
The recent reacquisition of Kieran Tierney, albeit on a free transfer is also a statement of intent.
This is the kind of market Celtic are operating in now. We will have to start paying higher fees, more frequently, to secure the talent we need to continue to progress in Europe.
The difference is, unlike other clubs, we will only spend the money we can afford to, and we won’t compromise our principles or the law to do so.
