Arne Engels in powerful Celtic response to direct question about the future of dazzling Daizen Maeda
Arne Engels is hoping Celtic can keep Daizen Maeda under lock and key until the transfer window slams shut.
The Hoops have kicked off contract extension talks with the speed merchant who is being tracked by Brentford and several other clubs in England and across the continent. Maeda was at his blistering best in Saturday's 4-0 demolition job on EPL Newcastle United as Brendan Rodgers' men went up the pre-season gears.
The Parkhead boss snapped up rapid hitman Shin Yamada at the weekend but is looking to add more firepower in the coming weeks. Engels admitted keeping hold of player-of-the-year Maeda would be huge.
When asked if Celtic can lock him up until September 1, the Belgian said: Hopefully! He's an amazing player and also really good for us and in the dressing room too.
"He's a lovely guy, so hopefully he will stay. We never know what is going on.
'He would be fantastic for us next year and like Saturday also. He's just an amazing person that is really helping us in every kind of aspect of the game.'
Celts are chasing two new wide men and a striker for starters, while winger Marco Tilio is set for a loan more to Rapid Vienna - ahead of a £1.3m permanent switch next summer.
Engels insisted the Hoops are already in strong shape – even before more recruits check in.
He said: "We have a really good squad. And there will be always rumours about players coming in, going. It's up to us to keep this all inside and to work on the players that are here. You see that on Saturday also, that we have a lot of quality already.
"We'll see what's going in and going out, we never know, but the squad that is now here is fantastic. All the boys are doing really well.
"It's always nice to get a lot of quality players in and it's up to us then to show ourselves to the manager and to everybody else in the stadium and outside.
"But it's always going to be competition everywhere where you go, so it's then just keeping doing the right things that you always do good. There will be always competition.'
Engels enjoyed an impressive first season at Celtic despite arriving with a hefty £11m price tag. The Belgian cap was linked with a quick-fire move toSerie A Atalanta but the midfield powerhouse has shrugged off departure speculation and insisted his sights are set on a blockbuster second term.
Engels said: "I'm trying to do my best here and to get ready for the new season. There will always be rumours and it's up to me to just show on the field what I'm up to.
"I'm here at Celtic and I really want to do great for this club and to reach a lot of things, so I'm not really thinking about something else.'
Celtic will head to Italy in the ext 48 hours to compete in the Como Cup, where they'll square up with Ajax on Thursday and then the winner of Como's clash with Al-Ahili at the weekend.
Club chiefs will be working in the background at brining in new faces and while the manager has been pleased with the progress, he insisted the Hoops are just getting warmed up.
Rodgers said: 'It's been building for us, but there is more to come. There's more to come in as well. But you can see the progression with this group at the moment. Preparation will be about continuing our fitness levels and tactical ideas. We want to get some more players to come in and support the guys here so we will be ready for a long, and hopefully exciting, season.'
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Scottish Sun
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- Scottish Sun
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Fine margins: How Norris lost out to Piastri in Belgium
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And the race turned on a few key drive was from the top drawer - he took the lead from Norris at the rolling start after a few exploratory laps behind the safety car in the wet by being, by Norris' admission, a little braver through Eau Rouge on the first he managed his position with careful judgement to make his medium-compound tyres last to the end while under pressure from the closing Norris on more durable Norris may look back on a few small errors in which he could have done better. He said he "couldn't have won". He probably could not. But he could have given himself a slither of a chance, despite the difficult position he was in by leading at the start. The start Piastri had demonstrated how difficult it is for the driver on pole to lead by the end of the first lap at Spa by losing the sprint race win to Red Bull's Max Dutchman slipstreamed past Piastri up the hill to Les Combes, and then held the McLaren at bay for 15 laps, while Norris followed closely in the grand prix, it was Norris in front, with Piastri in second and Piastri had been thinking about the opportunity this presented him since losing out on pole the day team boss Andrea Stella said: "This weekend, Oscar, if anything, the only inaccuracy was in qualifying, where his laps weren't perfect."At the same time, we have to say that after the sprint qualifying, he said, 'Yeah, I'm in pole position, but maybe this is not the right place to be in pole position.'"And as a joke, after the qualifying yesterday, he said, 'That was not my best lap in Q3, but perhaps this is the best place not to have the best lap in Q3.'"Sure enough, Piastri took the lead on lap one of the grand prix, just as Verstappen had the day before."I had a good run out of Turn One," he said, "and then tried to be as brave as I could through Eau Rouge and was able to stay pretty close. 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Piastri had first choice as leader, and went for mediums with a stop on lap could have pitted Norris at the same time - the so-called double-stack - but went for another lap, and decided for hard tyres, to go to the end. Piastri was planning the same but didn't know whether the mediums would make had been just under two seconds behind when Piastri pitted, and was nine seconds back when he rejoined the seconds of that offset can be accounted for by a slower pit stop, the other five by the extra lap on worn intermediates. A double-stack would have cost less time - but then he'd have been on the mediums, and the race effectively already said: "To catch Oscar from that gap is quite an achievement. I gave it a good shot, but just not close enough."Piastri said: "It was quite a late decision to pit on the lap we did, but there's risks either way. If I was in Lando's position, I probably would have done the same thing. At that point, it seemed like the safest thing to do was go on the medium, because the hard is two steps harder here."Stella said: "We did consider double stacking. At the same time, it was possible for Lando to deviate. He opted to deviate, which would have given him the possibility to go on hard tyres, which is what he decided to do."Actually, I thought at some stage that that would have been a very good move, but I have to say that Oscar managed a very solid and strong stint on the medium tyres. Even if Lando was, on average, a little bit faster, that was not enough to attack Oscar at the end." The chase Norris now had to try to chase Piastri down. He got to within 3.4 seconds by the end of the race, but he probably lost a little more than that with three errors during his ran wide at the fast Pouhon double left-hander on lap 26, costing himself 1.3 seconds, then had lock-ups at La Source on laps 33 and 43, costing a total of just under three a perfect race might have given him a shot at Piastri on the last lap or two. But given how difficult overtaking proved at Spa in both races, the chances of him actually getting by must be considered slim in the said: "Yes, Lando had a couple of lock-ups in corner one and also a little oversteer in corner nine that cost him time. I think this, overall, prevented us from having an interesting battle, possibly, at the end."But, in fairness, even Oscar had a couple of times in corner one a little bit of a time loss."It's very difficult when you push so much in these conditions. It's very difficult to always drive within the limit of the grip, and also it's not easy to always keep the car on the racing line when you have the maximum grip, considering that, away from that, you can lose it very rapidly because of the track being still a little damp." The lessons Piastri's sixth win in 13 races extends his lead in the see-sawing battle to 15 points before the next race in Hungary this weekend, scene last year of Piastri's maiden victory, in somewhat controversial circumstances. Stella called Piastri's drive "very, very, very high quality", but added: "We have two drivers which to the standards that even myself in my career have been close to, driving with multiple World Champions, I think Lando and Oscar are operating at that level, at the level of deservedly being in contention for the drivers' world championship."This is quite the compliment considering Stella engineered both Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso during his Ferrari years earlier this said: "The difference will be made by the accuracy, the precision, the quality of the execution."The execution is what is going to make the main difference. We, as a team, we will try and make sure that from a reliability point of view, from a team operation point of view, we are as good as possible, such that it will be the drivers deciding their own outcome in terms of competing for the drivers' championship." Should the race have started earlier? 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And they kept going around and around and around."However, both acknowledged that the decisions were made after the drivers had urged officials following the last race at Silverstone - in which one car rammed another unsighted at a restart in the rain - not to go too Piastri and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc both pointed out the extreme dangers of Spa, and referenced the two fatalities that have happened there in junior categories in recent said: "For that reason, I'd rather be safe than too early. It's a constant discussion, and we'll probably feed the people that made this decision back that maybe it was a little bit on the late side, but I wouldn't have changed anything."Piastri added: "The past few years, particularly here, we've given the FIA feedback that we would much rather be on the safe side than risk anything. I think that's what we did today."If you were to be picky, maybe we could have done one less formation lap. 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Metro
4 hours ago
- Metro
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