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Forest return with third Engels bid reaching £25m as Celtic hold firm

As we predicted earlier today Nottingham Forest did return with a massive third bid for Arne Engels of £20m plus an additional £5m in add-ons, taking their valuation of the Celtic midfielder to an incredible £25m…

Arne Engels

Arne Engels. Celtic v theRangers. Premier Sports Cup, semi final at Hampden. 2 November 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Yet Celtic don’t seem to be interested in selling Engels at this stage with ground still to be made up in the Scottish Premiership where Celtic sit in second place, ix points behind league leaders Hearts as a direct consequence of the dreadful decision by the Celtic Board to bring in Wilfried Nancy to replace Brendan Rodgers.

Ironically it was Rodgers who pushed for the £11m signing of Engels from Bundesliga side Augsburg with that record fee often being a used as a rod to beat the former manager with by those who clearly didn’t rate or didn’t want to rate the Belgian.

Arne Engels celebrates

Arne Engels of Celtic celebrates after he scores his team’s fourth goal from the penalty spot during the Premier ship match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on November 09, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Yet Engels’ numbers at Celtic are impressive, a fact that a Premier League club has identified and seem determined to get their man. The English transfer window closes at 7pm so time is running out on this one.

Engels is more likely to move in the summer and Celtic can certainly expect to receive that kind of money in that window, which will certainly give the next permanent manager some working capital to pursue his own signing targets.

Arne Engels

Arne Engels of Celtic arrives prior to the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and Hibernian FC at Celtic Park on May 10, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

And as Conall McGinty pointed out after the second and before the third bid from Nottingham Forest for Arne Engels, we’ll hear no more about Engels being a waste of money. In fact Celtic will easily double their investment, but no-one will apologies or thank Brendan Rodgers for his shrewd judgement in bringing Arne Engels to Celtic.

Celtic in the Thirties

Celtic in the Thirties by Matt Corr. Click on image to order