ARNE Engels has promised he will not allow speculation about his future to affect him in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final after reports claimed that Atalanta are set to make Celtic an offer for him this summer.
Engels, who was signed from Augsburg in Germany for a club record £11m fee back in August, revealed that he was unaware of any interest from the Italian outfit as he looked ahead to the meeting with Aberdeen at Hampden tomorrow.
The Belgian internationalist stressed that he was only focused on helping Brendan Rodgers’ team to complete a domestic treble this weekend and then improving as a player with them in the 2025/26 campaign.
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Asked if he was aware of the link with Atalanta, the midfielder said, “I didn't read it so it's the first time that I heard about it. There will always be something to write or to talk about.
“If you have a good season and hopefully win a lot of things then there will always be clubs and will always be speculation around a lot of players.
“I think I am not the only one here that will have speculation in the summer. I'm just focused here now on the next game and it's a really big one and then in the summer I only want to get better.”
“We need to get better so that we can hopefully have a better season next year. It's a big thing to go into Europe and to do really well there and hopefully we can compete for all the trophies again like we did this year. We will see where we end.”
The 21-year-old, who has already helped Celtic to win the Premier Sports Cup and the William Hill Premiership, admitted that one of the reasons that he moved to Parkhead this season was to learn what it takes to win trophies.
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He stressed he has enjoyed the experience of lifting silverware during the past nine months and confessed that he is keen to add more medals to his collection in the coming seasons.
“It would be amazing to do the treble, to accomplish that,” he said. “It was of course a big thing to come here and to win trophies. To be able to hopefully win three trophies in the end would be an amazing feeling, it would be a perfect season for me to start here.
“I didn't really win a lot of things before and that's why I came here. I wanted to experience that and to see how it is to win things or to compete for the trophies and to get that feeling. If you go somewhere else or you don't know how it is to win. Here you have everything to do that.”
