Martin O'Neill hails Celtic board’s ‘remarkable’ refusal of Forest bids for Arne Engels | OneFootball

Martin O’Neill praised Celtic’s board for rejecting Nottingham Forest’s offers for Arne Engels, describing their stance as remarkable.

“The board turned it down. Obviously, it's arrived very, very late in the day and we had these offers coming in,” he said, as he told talkSPORT.

Forest made three offers for the 22-year-old, with O’Neill suggesting two came on deadline day and one before Monday. He did not disclose fees, but it has been reported the bids rose from around £14m to £17m, then to a package worth up to £25m including £5m in add-ons.

Celtic have kept the Belgian, who has 15 goals and 20 assists in 89 appearances, at least for the remainder of the season.

“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.”

Forest also tried to sign Hayden Hackney from Middlesbrough, but the captain was not interested in leaving during a promotion push. They were linked with NEC Nijmegen’s Kodai Sano, and it was claimed they offered €20m amid competition from Ajax.

Source: Nottingham Post