Nottingham Forest are reported to have made their first formal offer to sign Arne Engels from Celtic.
The original report comes from Belgium and has been picked up by the Nottingham Post.
Celtic rejected last minute interest from Forest in January. With seven weeks left in the transfer window Forest look like getting their business done early.
Forest’s initial move for Engels appears to have been an example of succession planning with interest growing in Eliot Anderson.
With the England midfielder now a Manchester City player they are stepping up their interest in Engels.
The Nottingham Post reports:
Celtic boss Martin O’Neill has admitted Arne Engels could be on the move this summer amid Nottingham Forest reportedly testing the waters for the midfielder.
The Reds set their sights on Engels during the winter transfer window but had three bids rebuffed by the Scottish giants. Offers worth £14 million and £17m were rejected, then an eyebrow-raising package worth up to £25m went the same way shortly before the deadline.
Forest have retained an interest in the 22-year-old since then and it seems they are trying to get ahead in the battle for his signature. According to Belgian publication Voetbal Krant, the club are “pushing hard” to sign Engels and have submitted a “first formal offer”.
Transfer interest in Engels shouldn’t come as a surprise to Celtic.
In August 2024 Celtic paid Augsburg £11m to sign Engels who was only 20 at the time of the move. The hoops will be looking for double that fee with Augsburg likely to have a sell-on clause in the original transfer.
So far this summer only Camilo Duran, a striker has been added to last season’s squad.
ONEILL ANTICIPATING OFFERS FOR MULTIPLE CELTIC PLAYERS
As well as Engels, Martin O’Neill is anticipating bids coming in for Reo Hatate and Ben Nygren. Towards the end of last season Paulo Bernardo struggled to make it into the 20 man matchday squad.
Time is starting to run against Celtic with no sign of the sort of influx of players that fans expected to see.
All five of the players brought in on loan in January have returned to their parent club.
Three weeks tonight Celtic unfurl the SPFL flag in the opening fixture at home to Dundee.
Just over two weeks after that they will be involved in the Play Off stage for the Champions League.
Last season’s defeat to Kairat Almaty cast a shadow over the entire season but it seems that Celtic could go into those matches with a weaker squad than the one that finished last season.
Don’t forget that this current Celtic FC board would sell their grannies if there was a nice few quid to be had ? It all adds to their end of season massive bonuses and other nice perks !
If we sell him Martin may get some to spend since they haven’t spent a penny yet. The money for the striker came from Palma and the Japanese boy so no money spent it’s embarrassing. So called the biggest club in Scotland. Just a joke now
Same board who rejected 25m in January ye mean?. There more to it than just cashing in. Its about getting the best deal for the club in order to recoup, what was paid, putting money aside to reinvest in a replacement and then profit.
Editor: It is about getting caught short by not signing Lennon Miller is someone similar in the summer of 2025. It broke Nicholson’s heart being forced to reject the bids for Engels. A bid of £25m after the club had been bad mouthing Engels to their obedient media messengers, no bids coming in for Tisdale’s duds.
Time to chase these charlatans out of OUR club.
Arfur Daley FC. It’s a nice little earner, Terrance….
And the unintended consequence of the Board being slow as a snail when it comes to
transfer activity: the Board refuses offers at the end of the transfer window – because it would
leave the squad too light in that position.
Reports last summer were that Maeda was off – and had allegedly already cleared his locker?
But a deal was refused because we were short on forward players.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Maeda’s form last season was abysmal – until the run-in anyway.
We all know the Board is going to cock-up this transfer window too… 🙁
the only deals to be done quick are when were selling , wonder what £5m utter shit signing we have lined up to replace him at the final hours of the window , another season of shite coming our way and martins turning into a Desmond puppet every passing day