Nottingham Forest tried to sign Celtic star Arne Engels on Transfer Deadline Day.
Engels was high on the list of Forest targets as the hours dwindled on the transfer window, with Martin O’Neill standing firm over his midfielder.
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O’Neill has a love-hate relationship with Forest following his ill-fated 19-game spell as the club’s head coach – a tenure that he claims wasn’t long enough to stamp his own authority on the job.
Now, the Celtic boss might feel as though he’s got one over Evangelos Marinakis after standing firm on Engels and choosing to keep him at Parkhead at least until the summer.
Arne Engels in action for Celtic
Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
Martin O’Neill shares how Arne Engels feels
It’d been claimed that Engels was upset that his move to Forest couldn’t be agreed, but now O’Neill has suggested that wasn’t the case at all.
Engels plays for a huge football club, but the Premier League is where most football players see themselves playing as their careers progress.
O’Neill has suggested that Engels is fine, however, after being quizzed by the Daily Record on how the midfielder is feeling after being denied a move to Forest.
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He said: “Arne seemed bright and breezy this morning. And I probably didn’t really want to talk to him! He didn’t kick up a fuss about it either, even though it came in late.
“I think his agent was happy enough with the situation. He said that this is it. I think Arne is happy here, he wants to see what the season will bring at the end.
“Of course it’s tempting, it’s really big money for here. But they didn’t take their bait. So naturally, I’m really pleased. And we can re-look at things in the summer.”
Engels might have missed the Forest boat now
In the summer, Elliot Anderson will probably leave Forest, and Marinakis might then have around £100 million to play with in the transfer market.
As a result, Forest might be in the market for somebody a little more accomplished in the Premier League than Engels, and that could mean the Belgian looks for another move.
Paying over £20 million for Engels would have been a little bit strange, given that any midfielder who had been signed in January wouldn’t have seen a starter.
Anderson and Ibrahim Sangare have been excellent in tandem for Forest, and with that in mind, the Reds are probably wise to have pulled out of the race.
It will now be fascinating to see how the player gets on for the remainder of the campaign at Celtic and whether or not the Reds do return in the summer.
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