Over the course of just over a day Celtic appear to have added £2.5m to their valuation of Arne Engels. As ever Anthony Joseph of Sky Sports is providing a running commentary for supporters with Michael Nicholson tasked with securing the deal.
With days running out in the transfer window Augsburg’s policy of sitting tight is paying off with Celtic £28m better off thanks to the sale of Matt O’Riley than when they first contacted the German side with an offer.
After the disastrous scatter-gun approach to Recruitment last summer Brendan Rodgers appears to have put his foot down on the array of projects highlighted by whatever passes for Celtic’s Recruitment Team.
Players that are Champions League ready don’t tend to come with £2.5m price tags, at £9.5m it is likely that Augsburg will get down to serious negotiations for a player that they signed for £100,000 in January 2023.
While Celtic’s project signings languish on the sidelines Engels was given a full season of Bundesliga football which accelerated his game to the fringes of the Belgian international side.
UPDATE: Celtic are making an improved offer of £9m for Augsburg midfielder Arne Engels.
Augsburg rejected Celtic’s first offer of £6.5m & aren’t keen to sell.
However, Celtic are pushing for a deal with Brendan Rodgers very keen to sign Engels.
Talks continue.
(w/@Plettigoal) https://t.co/tXz7olyf4n
— Anthony Joseph (@AnthonyRJoseph) August 27, 2024
Now CEO Nicholson has to discover previously unused negotiating skills to deliver a midfielder of the quality required by Brendan Rodgers, someone that won’t look like a fish out of water when Celtic start their Champions League campaign in three weeks time.
A year ago Gus Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Hom were sent off away to Feyenoord as Celtic started a fairly straight forward Champions League group with a defeat on their way to an early wooden spoon to finish European football before Christmas.
As Aa CEO Nicholson has refused to give any media interviews, not even the tamest of softball questions and answers with Gerry McCulloch. Now he finds himself deep into high level transfer negotiations knowing that he will appear even weaker if he is constantly contacting his mentor and club Chairman to steer him through the process.
After the bullish comments of Rodgers on Sunday after the win over St Mirren the pressure is now on Nicholson with his manager expecting two midfielders to replace the gap left by the record breaking sale of O’Riley.
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2 Comments
by Redmond
If (the perception of) Idah’s transfer is anything to go by our CEO is not a very good negotiator: go in low, run time out and… Pay the money! Just pay the money, get the deals done and bask in the huge profit on MOR, the fact you got Benfica down a couple mil & the fact that the club has brought in around £49m since January and so far spent just £17m of that!
by Stephen
The Board will never learn they need replaced.
Only way to do that is boycott and that will not happen.
So we’re stuck with them.
Why Rogers came back we’ll never know.