When you sign for one of the biggest clubs in the country for a record £11m fee, almost everyone will have an opinion on you, and on whether you are justifying that huge outlay.

Arne Engels knows this all too well. The Belgian may be just 21, but he is far from naïve.

The midfielder seems to have an old head on those young shoulders of his, and that has allowed him to shoulder not only that burden of expectation, but to rise above the conjecture surrounding his performances during these early months of his Celtic career.

Engels is indeed taking heed of opinions on his contribution to his team, but only from those whose opinion he values. Namely, his manager, Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic coaching staff, and his teammates.

Everything else, according to Engels, is just white noise.

“I'm relaxed in every game,” Engels said.

“I just want to do my best and want to try to help the team.

(Image: Andrew Milligan - PA) “I don't really see a lot of the things that are written or anything. So that's maybe a good thing that I don't read a lot into the newspapers.

“I'm just trying my best and [the manager] is also helping me in that, I think.

“I know what I'm doing, and everybody here inside knows also what I'm doing and what I'm capable of. So, I don't really feel pressure.

“I don't really need to put pressure on myself or something. It just comes by itself and I'm working every day really hard on the points that I need to improve. What they indicate here inside, not what they indicate outside.

“So, that's the most important thing, that everything stays inside and that everybody knows what the points are and what I need to work on.

“I'm feeling really comfortable. Everything is going smoothly and how I want it to be. So, I think I have no complaints. It can only become better.

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“I think I'm learning every day, learning every game. So, everybody here inside is helping me to adapt and to move on.

“If you always talk about the pressure and this and that, then it's a good thing to have that you are calm in your head, and just know what you're doing and don't really listen to some people that you don't need to listen to, and just need to listen to the guys that you really want to listen to.

“I think I'm doing that really good and that also improves myself and my qualities.”

The guidance of Rodgers during his settling in period has not only been invaluable to Engels as a player, but as a person, helping him to quickly adapt to his new country in a footballing sense and away from the pitch too.

“I think he's really good for everybody here in the building,” he said.

“And for every player, he's speaking a lot to every one of us. So, he's really good for us and helping us in every kind of way.

“He's a manager that really wants to know how you feel and how you are as a person.

“So, that's also a warm welcome that you have here if you speak to him. For me, he's really good and he's also teaching me a lot of things on the pitch also.

“So that really helps me to adapt really quickly.”

(Image: Andrew Milligan - PA) Not only does Engels believe he has been able to show the Celtic fans why the club felt moved to spend so much money to bring him to Glasgow, but that he has also shown them a steady improvement since his arrival, a performance curve that is only trending upwards.

“I think [I’ve improved] a lot,” he said.

“I think I've experienced a lot here.

“It's a different style of playing also from what I was used to. Also, a different kind of competition, so I also need to adapt to that. I think I'm doing that very good.

“There are still things that I need to improve, but I'm only 21. I have time and I know everybody expects a lot. But I'm also doing a lot of work inside and outside of football.”

One way Engels could lay to rest any lingering doubts about his price tag, and repay a hefty chunk of it, would be to play his part in helping Celtic through to the play-off round of the Champions League with a win over Young Boys tomorrow night.

Victory over the Swiss champions – who sit at the bottom of the Champions League table without a point - would all-but guarantee progress to that stage, and perhaps even give Celtic a chance of sneaking into the knockout phase automatically with a trip to face Aston Villa in Birmingham to come next week.

To do so, Engels believes Celtic will have to produce a similar level of display that they managed against RB Leipzig back in November, a performance widely regarded as their best of the season so far, and he thinks they are more than capable of doing so having actually improved since that night.

“I think it was maybe one of our best games,” he said.

“But it’s the Champions League and again we need to have that kind of level, I think, to be on top of our best and to perform as we did then.

(Image: Andrew Milligan - PA)

“But we need to look forward and that's in the past and not in the future. I think we are ready for it, and that was in November, so it's already two or three months behind us.

“We’ve improved as a squad, we’ve improved as players, so I think we are even better now, and I think we can put on an even more complete game.”

*Arne Engels was speaking to promote the Paradise Windfall Superdraw, with a special £15,000 first prize on offer for players on Wednesday night. Details can be found here: https://www.celticfc.com/celtic-pools/paradise-windfall/