The story of transfer deadline day was Nottingham Forest’s attempt to sign Celtic midfielder Arne Engels for £25m.
Celtic knocked back an original bid for £14m before deadline day but the Premier League club were undeterred.
Forest delivered a £17.3m bid for Engels early on deadline day, an offer that was swiftly booted out by Celtic.
Can Celtic afford to sell Arne Engels?
Celtic midfielder Arne Engels.
And then a further £25m bid for the Celtic star followed as Forest continued their aggressive pursuit of Engels.
Celtic stood firm and now, they keep their prized asset until at least the end of the season. But Simon Donnelly was unhappy with what he was hearing about the failed transfer bid as he said his old club were right to hang on to the young midfielder.
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Simon Donnelly says Celtic can’t afford to lose Arne Engels
With Celtic tied into a three-way tussle for the SPFL title, Donnelly said keeping Engels was the correct thing to do.
Donnelly told Superscoreboard, “Right now? No. Because he’s playing in the midfield for Celtic. £25m might have been heightened because of a transfer deadline.
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“You might never get it again, but if the boy plays well between now and the summer, that might be interesting.
“I just think you can’t take somebody who’s playing quite regularly in that midfield out the team.
“At the moment, I don’t think there’s been other ones that have come in. I’m not saying Engels has been an absolute stick-out, but there’s been other ones that have come in in recent times and haven’t taken a chance.
“So I think, at the moment, I think he’s an important member of Martin’s squad.”
Simon Donnelly boots out what he heard said about Engels’ £25m Celtic exit
Host of the show Gordon Duncan was not letting the discussion go as he tried to frame the question in a different way.
Duncan probed further and asked, “I’ll move the goalposts slightly then. Should Celtic have been in a position where you do take the £25m because you’ve got a structure and a plan in place where you go and replace them?”
Donnelly: “Yeah, that’s a different argument. You know? They could have had other people lined up, and then I see it the other night, take the £25m and go and buy him and him.
“But this is not Championship Manager we’re playing at the last minute. But yeah, I take that one on board.
“That could have been something that they had somebody in place, should that sort of come about.”
What a weird line of questioning. Any other football club would have been praised for managing to hold onto their top talents after rejecting bids from the Premier League.
But not Celtic. The Parkhead club appear to be getting criticised for making a decision that will benefit the first-team and the defence of the title.
What a strange wee world we live in.
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