Nottingham Forest are keen to sign Arne Engels from Celtic and have now received a response from the Scottish champions.
Martin O’Neill has had a bit of an axe to grind with Forest since his ill-fated 19-game stint as the club’s head coach, and it does feel unlikely that the Hoops will sell today.
However, that isn’t going to stop Forest from trying, with Sean Dyche keen to bolster his ranks ahead of the deadline, which is at 7pm this evening.
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Forest allowed Douglas Luiz to leave the club earlier in the transfer window, and as a result, the team are light in central midfield at the moment.
Now, Forest are upping the ante for Engels and have made an early offer on transfer deadline day for the Belgian international.
Arne Engels in action for Celtic
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Celtic respond to improved Nottingham Forest offer for Arne Engels
According to Sky Sports News, Forest have now seen a bid of £17.3 million rejected from Celtic on the morning of Transfer Deadline Day.
The Hoops have also informed Forest that Engels isn’t for sale during this transfer window, and they now hope that this will be the end of the Reds’ interest.
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The 22-year-old has made four appearances for Belgium during his career, and since arriving at Celtic from Augsburg, he’s made 89 appearances and claimed 35 goal contributions.
Engels is a bit of a specialist when it comes to set-pieces, and after losing an element of that by letting Luiz go, it’s clear what Forest are looking for today.
Forest have to move quickly to sign central midfielder
If anything were to happen to Ibrahim Sangare or Elliot Anderson, Forest would be short with Nicolas Dominguez playing out wide at the moment, and the limited Ryan Yates the only other alternative.
As a result, it’s vital that Forest get a central midfielder sorted before today’s deadline to bolster the options available to Dyche in that area of the pitch.
Engels is perhaps one to revisit in the summer transfer window and it does feel as if this one is now done and dusted from a Forest perspective.
With Celtic now back in the title race and still in the Europa League, they won’t want their squad weakening and given O’Neill’s opinion on Evangelos Marinakis, he’s likely to stand firm.
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