{"id":551068,"date":"2025-11-05T16:47:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/551068\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T16:47:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T16:47:31","slug":"kevin-mbabu-on-celtic-revenge-mission-for-rangers-as-ibrox-mega-flop-dubs-enemy-star-the-complete-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/551068\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Mbabu on Celtic revenge mission for Rangers as Ibrox mega flop dubs enemy star ‘the complete player’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Swiss ace was one of the infamous Newcastle Five who arrived on loan in Govan a decade agoKevin Mbabu<\/p>\n

Kevin Mbabu hopes to beat the enemy for his Rangers<\/a> pals as he prepares a special welcome for ex-team-mate Arne Engels, writes Craig Swan from Denmark<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And former Hearts<\/a> player Mike Tullberg is now aiming to emulate his old club by getting on top of the Parkhead side and beating a legend.<\/p>\n

There is no shortage of Scottish links in the Midtjylland side aiming to maintain their place at the top of the standings.<\/p>\n

Right-back Mbabu spent six months at Ibrox in 2015 on a loan spell from Newcastle and, despite not playing a game, he forged some strong friendships which include old skipper James Tavernier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cOf course it will be special because as a former Rangers player, the fans from Rangers will expect me to beat the enemy, especially after what happened last weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, of course, it will be a little bit special because I also still have a couple of friends in Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also have a former team-mate that plays there, James Tavernier, who\u2019s the captain. I haven\u2019t talked to him yet.<\/p>\n

“But I think I will maybe get a message in the next few hours or maybe tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019ll definitely have to represent a little bit, maybe one per cent Rangers, and do the best that I can to get the three points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mbabu will come face-to-face with his old Augsburg colleague Engels for the first time and said: \u201cOf course, I will also send him a message later, hoping that he will be ready for the game. And hoping also that he will not be on my side [of pitch] because I will kick him!<\/p>\n

Hearts’ Beni Baningime (L) and Celtic’s Arne Engels <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great player with a huge potential that I always praise since I\u2019ve seen him in Augsburg. He has an excellent right foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a complete player and, hopefully, he doesn\u2019t perform as I want him to usually. But he\u2019s really a player that we can see in a big team in the next few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Midtjylland boss Tullberg had a short spell at Tynecastle on loan from Reggina in 2008. Hearts lead Celtic in the Premiership<\/a> and beat them last month and the gaffer said: \u201cIt\u2019s a long time since I was in Scotland and, when I was, Hearts were not on top on Celtic.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, of course, as an old Hearts player, you always follow the teams where you played yourself. I didn\u2019t play for such a long time because I was injured, but I had a great time in Hearts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still have some friends over there with my wife and, when I was with Dortmund Under 19s in the UEFA Youth League game against Hibs in Edinburgh, I also met some of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I\u2019m happy about the situation for my old club to be on top, but for me it\u2019s a professional game against Celtic and we will just prepare like we prepare every other game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tullberg has noted the injection of energy into Celtic after the appointment of Martin O\u2019Neill<\/a>, but is not seeing this as any type of managerial duel.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThey took in a legend, not only in the club, but in the country as well. It\u2019s a manager who has seen a lot and done a lot with a lot of experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little bit of change with the change in the gaffer situation. Two wins.<\/p>\n

Mike Tullberg<\/p>\n

“The two games they had, especially, I think the biggest difference was the energy and the power. And sometimes it is like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I played and you change the gaffer, if you\u2019re struggling a little bit, then it sometimes releases some energy.They will try to get a better position in the Europa League.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, in our case, even though we are a team from Denmark, we are thinking about our team and not speaking so much about our opponent. And that was also the approach when we played in Nottingham against a team from the Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy way of thinking is my team 90 per cent and then the 10 per cent is the other team. And that will not change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have big respect for the manager on the other side, but for me, it\u2019s football. If it\u2019s against Forest away or is it a Silkeborg game at home, it doesn\u2019t matter for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have big respect for my colleagues in football, but it\u2019s not about me going to challenge another gaffer. It\u2019s about the players. It\u2019s not a gaffer\u2019s game, it\u2019s a player\u2019s game. Let\u2019s not write a story about me challenging a gaffer. It\u2019s about my players.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Swiss ace was one of the infamous Newcastle Five who arrived on loan in Govan a decade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[13608,2628,1811,94,1949,1946,79,6536,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-551068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-arne-engels","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-europa-league","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-james-tavernier","13":"tag-rangers-fc","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uefa","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115498114476448862","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}