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A great Celtic man once famously said: “There’s a buzz about the place.” Decades on, those words uttered by the legendary Paul McStay couldn’t be more apt. After months in disarray, the Hoops are slowly but surely looking like their old selves again. And there’s no doubt that Martin O’Neill has restored the feel-good factor at Parkhead. Sure, it’s early days for O’Neill who was only brought back to steady the ship as interim boss. How long the iconic gaffer stays in the dugout remains to be seen. But if you asked most Celtic fans after Sunday’s dramatic derby triumph at Hampden , they’d probably love O’Neill to see out the campaign - and possibly beyond. The charismatic Irishman has lifted the entire mood of the club in the wake of Brendan Rodgers’ bombshell exit. Dermot Desmond left jaws on the floor with his scathing character assassination of Rodgers last Monday. But there’s no doubt the Irish tycoon pulled off a masterstroke by convincing 73-year-old O’Neill to return to the hotseat. If there’s one man who can galvanise a fractured club, it’s O’Neill - arguably the second most beloved manager in Celtic’s history behind Jock Stein. And Arne Engels - who wasn’t even born when O’Neill led Celts to the 2003 UEFA Cup Final in Seville - admits the returning messiah has lifted the gloom that’s clouded Celtic Park since the summer transfer window. Reflecting on the fresh air of positivity that has swept Glasgow’s east end, the Belgian beamed: "I think everybody was just together and had a really good feeling every time. "The things that are going on outside of our group are not something that we can change. "We can change it by performances, that's true. But we just need to look to ourselves and hopefully get everybody involved again by really playing well and winning games like today. "Of course, the manager that came in had a really positive feeling about everything and lifted the mood. "So everybody is really happy and also with the performances now that we did, we can't be more happy than that." Few have benefitted more than Engels, who’s been given a new lease of life. The club’s record signing was bizarrely bombed for most of this season under Rodgers. But the £11million man has been back to his sparkling best in back-to-back wins over Falkirk and Rangers. Engels bagged an assist in the frantic semi-final triumph with a wicked corner delivery for Johnny Kenny to bullet past Jack Butland for the opener. The 22-year-old was one of O’Neill’s standout performers and said: "Yeah, I'm really happy with the performance of not only myself but also of the team. "I think we had a great intensity and a great mindset of just going for everything, going in the duels and going forward and creating a lot of chances and that's why we did well today. "Hopefully we can just keep on going now and not only do it for two games or three games. "Just do it for a longer period because that's how Celtic is. Just do it not only once but every time. "We have a really positive feeling about how everything is going now and how well we're playing and the intensity that we are bringing. "So I'm really happy with the way everything is going now." O’Neill was at pains to point out after Wednesday’s dismantling of Falkirk that he had walked into a dressing room of winners and quality. That message was not lost on Engels, who also singled out captain Callum McGregor, saying: “I think that's also something that the skipper is telling us. "That we are just fantastic footballers but we need to do it and we need to show it. "Not only once but we need to show it every time. That's maybe something that was missing in the beginning of the season. "But now I think we got that feeling again and that hunger also because that's also a big part of our identity as a group, just that hunger and that intensity. "I think we showed that today also and in the previous games now. Hopefully we can just do it again on Thursday in Midtjylland.” To say Celtic have had a stuttering start to the campaign is probably being kind. They trail runaway leaders Hearts by nine points, albeit with a game in hand, and have yet to win three matches on the bounce. It’s not been the relentless winning machine that Hoops fans have become used to watching over the glory years. But Engels is convinced that booking a place in the Premier Sports Cup Final can be a sliding-doors moment. He added: "Yeah, I think it can be a really big turning point. That's also something that we said before the game that it could be and hopefully it is. "If you see how we play the game, how we manage everything really well. "Of course, they had some long balls and some second balls but I think we created a lot of chances. "We were really good in the game so hopefully this can be a really big turning point for us. “I just hope that we kick on from this and just keep on the aggressivity and the intensity that we have always. “That was maybe something that we were missing in the beginning of the season but now we have it back and we just need to keep that hunger now. "We are in the final also so we need to keep that hunger in the next couple of months because that's what Celtic is about and that's what makes us great."
