Holiday time is over! Rodgers jokes with summer signing

The Belgian is Celtic’s record signing but alongside the £11m price tag is a 21-year-old adapting to the demands of playing twice a week for a mid-table German club where there are two matches a week and an incessant demand for victories and excellence.

Engels was given a cameo role in the Glasgow Derby then followed that up with the breakthrough goal against Hearts followed by an outstanding Champions League debut against Slovan Bratislava.

With two international breaks since his arrival from Augsburg it is understandable that his form has varied with the bar set at a very high level following his first couple of Celtic appearances.

Rodgers has been through it all as players adapt to new clubs, leagues and countries and understands exactly where Engels is at in the early stages of his Celtic career.

For me, we brought in a young player who’s nowhere near the finished article. Sometimes when there’s a price around him, some might feel that you’re buying someone who’s the finished article – he’s not.

He came in here as a 20-year-old player who’s got great potential and it’s my job, along with the staff, to develop that. I said to him, ‘You’re coming from playing one game a week – that’s a holiday in my book – to play for a big club with big pressure and big expectation and and you’ll feel it.’

And sometimes you’ll be playing a lot of games and sometimes you come out to recover, so it’s all natural. We had the same with Nicholas Kuhn, we’ve had probably the same with Callum McGregor over many years.

Listen I understand that people will make a judgement but I’m so so happy he chose to come here. He’s shown more than enough in this short period of time that he’s going to be a fantastic player for us.

With Motherwell, Dundee and Aberdeen to be faced in a seven day spell followed quickly by a Champions League tie with RB Leipzig Rodgers will be ensuring that his midfielders aren’t burnt out as he rotates around the almost ever-present Callum McGregor.