Upping the Ante for Arne. Brendan clearly wants his man. This could signal the start of an exciting era…
Celtic are said to be making an improved bid for FC Augsburg midfielder Arne Engels. The clubs last offer of £6.5 million was rejected by the Bundesliga, but now it’s been reported that we are going back in with a much improved £9 million offer for the Belgian under 21 international.
It’s clear that Brendan Rodgers wants the highly rated youngster and has persuaded the club to push the boat out in his attempt to bring the player to Glasgow.
Arne Engels 🇧🇪 v Werder Bremen (24/08/24) pic.twitter.com/EgkOipnw3Q
— Stewart Ross (@StewartRoss89) August 27, 2024
Along with the bids for Mateusz Bogusz and Austun Trusty it’s very clear that Brendan has demanded quality be brought in before the end of the window, and it looks as if he might just get what he wants.
Brendan is an elite football manager and needs the calibre he craves in his pursuit of success. It’s been doubtful for a while if the club shared that ambition with the manager, but we could well break our own transfer record twice in this window, so maybe they do share Brendan’s vision after all.
Or maybe Brendan is just very persuasive. Either way, this could signal the start of an exciting era for Celtic under Brendan Rodgers.
But there’s still work to be done on these deals with Celtic’s second offer of £9m could still be rejected. That’s around €10.7m which is within the reported asking price mentioned by Germany based Sky Sports reporter Florian Plettenberg earlier this week.
Now, after the Matt O’Riley deal has gone through, he’s reporting that the asking price is now “€13-15m all-in. Brendan Rodgers wants him.”
Moving the goalposts could make this a trickier deal to get done that was perhaps looking the case earlier in the day. If Celtic are forced to pay more then they should remove any sell-on clause from the deal.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
🚨🟢 🆕 FC Augsburg have rejected a first offer of £6.5m from @CelticFC for Arne #Engels ✔️
… a new and improved offer could follow soon. Augsburg want to keep 20 y/o Engels, considering him as an important player.
FCA only willing to think about his departure with offers of… pic.twitter.com/zsGNgl851z
— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) August 27, 2024
🇧🇪 | 𝘼𝙧𝙣𝙚 𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙡𝙨 – 𝘾𝙚𝙡𝙩𝙞𝙘
Celtic could make a further offer for Arne Engels after their initial offer was rejected.
Brendan Rodgers wants the 20 year old brought in but Augsburg are seeking a minimum of £11M.
[@Plettigoal] pic.twitter.com/ZSJISSPjWr
— Everything Celtic (@aboutceltic) August 27, 2024
Celtic only to blame, instead of signing him a month ago when interest started. Our board wait until the last week, we desperately need players due to selling Matt along with getting £30 million for him, the Germans are playing hard ball. Our board fanny about too much and ends up costing us more money, Idah now Engels.
Best run club in Britain, that we are in this position with days to go in the window and having to pay more because they fannied about all summer shows that our board are far from the best in Britain. Motherwell have their 9 signings in well before now. Seems their board and recruitment is far more advanced than ours.
They don’t want or need to sell – we have no bargaining power here (except the player wanting to come) to demand anything!