GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - NOVEMBER 02: Celtic's Arne Engels and Aberdeen's Luis Lopes in action during a Premier Sports Cup semi-final match between Celtic and Aberdeen at Hampden Park, on November 02, 2024, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Roddy Scott/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Celtic appear to have held their nerve by rejecting a third offer from Nottingham Forest for Arne Engels.
With less than an hour to go before the window closes for English clubs it looks like the Belgian midfielder will be staying at Celtic.
In the final days of the August 2024 transfer window Celtic paid a club record fee of £11m to sign Engels from Augsburg.
ENGELS- CHAMPIONS LEAGUE CLASS
Engels was an instant success, starting nine of Celtic’s 10 Champions League matches as the hoops had their best European season in over a decade.
Despite that key role his transfer fee seemed to be a problem for many fans and pundits.
It seemed that reinvesting the fee from selling Matt O’Riley on Engels, Auston Trusty and Adam Idah was too much for some to cope with.
In the summer of 2025 Celtic reigned in the spending although £10m was spent on Sebastian Tounekti and Michel-Ange Balikwisha.
Neither of those signings have made much impact.
Despite the pressures and regular changes in management Engels has attracted interest from elsewhere with Nottingham Forest pushing hard to take him to the EPL.
??FULL STORY: Celtic reject Nottingham Forest’s £25m #DeadlineDay bid for Arne Engels.https://t.co/0dkvZUuIWr https://t.co/9zs2xXHjfD
— Anthony Joseph (@AnthonyRJoseph) February 2, 2026
Sky Sports report:
Celtic have rejected Nottingham Forest’s third bid for midfielder Arne Engels worth up to £25m.
The Premier League club wanted to pay a guaranteed fee of £20m for Engels with £5m in add-ons.
Celtic mulled over the bid for their club-record signing but ultimately turned down the offer. They had previously rebuffed Forest’s first two bids for the 22-year-old, with the previous offer of £17.3m.
Celtic have had no plans to sell Engel in this window and on Sunday boss Martin O’Neill said he hoped the club would reject any offers.
It emerged after the summer 2025 window closed that Daizen Maeda and Yang Hyun-jun had expected to leave Celtic with bids turned down.
Now there could be a repeat with Engels missing out on what would obviously have been a move that would involved a significant pay rise.
Martin O’Neill made it clear on Sunday that Celtic couldn’t sell off any of his key players.
Now it looks like O’Neill will have to sit down with Engels tomorrow to ensure that he is in the right frame of mind for the Aberdeen match on Wednesday.
UPDATE: Celtic have confirmed the loan signing of Junior Amadu with an option to buy the striker from Freiburg.
?? We are delighted to announce the signing of Austrian internationalist, Junior Adamu, who has joined the club on loan from SC Freiburg until the end of the season, subject to international clearance.
?? Welcome to Celtic, Junior#WelcomeJunior | #CelticFC?
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) February 2, 2026
Better he waits to summer for a bigger club to come in .
Is there a podcast tonight Joe ?
Editor: Unfortunately not, some technical issue. Pity, it would have been lively.
Probably better holding off to see what kind of shit shoe the leading sports lawyer comes up with
Anyone else think now his head is turned with a 25m offer and potentially quadrupling his wages or more, that we will now have a Kyogo/Maeda situation where the performances drop and he doesn’t lift a leg?
Personally I think it may be the recent situation with the board and fanbase that has stopped this deal, cos any other time, 25m for Engels is a no brainer, he doesn’t do anything that Bernardo couldn’t do with a run in the team.
Don’t mean to sound harsh on Engles, doubt his performance could drop any more , he’s had plenty of time to show his potential but hasn’t, sunday showed he can’t take a decent corner and took up position beside a Falkirk player every time celtic broke forward, hiding in plain sight comes to mind, can’t believe Nicholson knocked back 20 + million for him , personally I’d have bitten forrests hand off for that amount, sincerely hope he ups his game now with that type of financial interest.
We should never had Sammy Davis Jnr anywhere near our club,a total disaster.
Had Martin remained in charge and in control we would be sitting top of the league just now,but now we having to chase down Hearts with sevco breathing down our own necks,but with Martin in control here’s hoping.
Hi Madman Mars, where you been hiding?
Hope it wasn’t with those other reprobates from your Doppelganger Club, The Joker, Scud Missile, Stephen(shush), and the rest of the gang. Must bring them along next time (not).
Btw Happy New Year….
Sammy Davis Junior? Give it up. Come on editor , get this shite removed.
Editor: He is being watched. His wacky patter has very limited appeal.
Very Very Very unusual for them not to snatch that !
Clach, St Martin would have walked if they had ‘snatched’ the dosh on offer and the fans wouldn’t have blamed him especially as he had expressly told the Board DO NOT sell any first team regulars.
Is there a podcast on Tuesday night Joe? Would like to hear all your takes on this shambles of a transfer window.
That’s it – The carnival is over…
And what the fuck have we done !
Four in plus the Nancy full back…
All loans which makes sense given their serial F*ck up with Brendan leaving and Nancy debacle…
Sevco sign three permanents and a loan for around 12 million…
And early too…
If only Cavenagh had bought Celtic – Eh !
Jimbhoy I only want to your friend,remember a stranger is just a friend I haven’t met before
Rememberthe truth hurts some people who can’t handle a bit of constructive criticism.
I feel there’s something fishy about this Engels to Forrest brew haha. I think it’s all been engineered to make the board look like they have some minerals which the dogs in the street know they don’t.
Editor: You are giving them too much credit here. The initial story came from Germany not from one of Celtic’s loyal media messengers.