Martin O’Neill has spoken for the first time since Celtic rejected a big-money move for midfielder Arne Engels, being quick to praise the Hoops hierarchy for standing firm on transfer deadline day.
Nottingham Forest came in with three bids for the Belgian, two of which came on the final day of the transfer window, with the most recent amounting to £25m.
O’Neill‘s connection with Forest is strong, having won two European Cups in 1979 and 1980, but he is delighted that the Hoops didn’t give in and sell Engels to his former club.
Celtic’s resolve was tested, but they stood firm to keep hold of one of their regular starters ahead of the title fight.
The club brought in three players on the final day of the window on loans until the end of the season, with options to buy both Junior Adamu and Joel Mvuka.
Though the incoming transfers weren’t the talking point. O’Neill was asked about the Engels saga and gave his thoughts.
Speaking on TalkSport, he said:
“No, the board turned it down. Obviously, it’s arrived very, very late in the day and we had these offers coming in.
“I actually did a press conference just after our game against Falkirk, unaware that there’d been an offer gone in. I think that the press seemed to get to know about them before the club did.
“But anyway, that’s beside the point. It was very late in proceedings and the board turned them down. Considering the amounts of money that you’re talking about, because that would be very, very big up here, that was remarkable.”
The 73-year-old is obviously delighted he didn’t see any of his regulars depart the club midway through the season.
Reports claimed Engels was unhappy at being denied the move, though a recent photo uploaded by Celtic in training could be a deliberate move to show he’s focused on Wednesday night’s game against Aberdeen.
With Iheanacho back, and Adamu and Mvuku spotted in training, the Hoops’ attacking options immediately look stronger. It remains to be seen if they’ll feature tomorrow night, but it’s promising to see that they’ve already got to work with the rest of the squad.
