Martin O’Neill on Celtic’s ‘remarkable’ £25m transfer call

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The Celtic Star

·4 de febrero de 2026

Martin O’Neill on Celtic’s ‘remarkable’ £25m transfer call

Martin O’Neill has described the club’s decision to rebuff Nottingham Forest’s pursuit of Arne Engels as ‘remarkable,’ while urging both the board and fans to work towards repairing their relationship…

Arne Engels of Celtic. 01.02.2026 Celtic v Falkirk, Scottish Premiership. Photo Kenny Ramsay IMAGO

Forest made three separate approaches for the 22-year-old Belgian midfielder, with their final proposal reportedly rising to £25million in total value.

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O’Neill told talkSPORT that he admired Celtic’s board for standing firm against interest from the Premier League club given the Hoops are battling it out with Hearts and the Ibrox club to win the title.

O’Neill said: “No, the board turned it down. Obviously, it’s arrived very, very late in the day, and we had these offers coming in.”

Arne Engels of Celtic celebrates scoring to give Celtic a 2-0 lead. Celtic v Dundee United, l Scottish Premiership, Football, Celtic Park, 10 January 2026. Photo Stuart Wallace Shutterstock

“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.”

Addressing how things currently stand between the board and supporters, O’Neill went on to say: “I’m hoping that there’ll be some sort of reconciliation between everyone. I think that is absolutely necessary at the football club. For us to go forward now, to get ourselves going, we qualified at least for another two games into the knockout stages of the Europa League.”

“The atmosphere against Utrecht was really, really good, but we can do with a reconciliation, no question about that.”

Arne Engels of Celtic scores his team’s third goal from the penalty spot during the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD8 match between Celtic FC and FC Utrecht at Celtic Park on January 29, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

“I think you think I’ve just come up here and feel as if I’m some mediator that’s going to try and sort a few things out. I’m up here to try and win a couple of football matches. If there’s a bit of shenanigans going on in the background, I can’t do anything about that at this minute.”

“But seriously, when I get an opportunity, I shall try and join the Peace Corps sometime and try and work it out from there.”

Martin repeated much of this and said much more at his media conference later in the day which you can watch below…

Conor Spence

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