West Ham closing in on Engels transfer from Celtic
Arne Engels is keen to join West Ham United, and Celtic boss Martin O'Neill has admitted heunderstands the player's desire to complete the transfer.
The 22-year-old has scored 14 goals and provided 10 assists in 66 Scottish Premiership games for Celtic, winning the competition twice in as many years since joining from Augsburg.
Engels also won the Scottish League Cup in 2024-2025 and the Scottish Cup in 2025-26, scoring in the showpiece of the latter against Dunfermline in May.
The midfielder provided an assist in Celtic's 5-1 win over Kilmarnock last weekend, which is set to be his final appearance for the club.
O'Neill wanted Engels to stay on for Celtic's UEFA Champions League qualifier against LASK, with the first leg next Thursday (AEST), but West Ham is keen to complete the move before the start of the EFL Championship season.
The Celtic boss also said he understood Engels's desire to secure the move after Alistair Johnston saw a potential transfer to Everton derailed by injury.
"West Ham wanted him to be available for the opening day of the season," O'Neill said.
"I would imagine that he's probably at this minute doing the medical. Naturally disappointed, really, that he's leaving the football club, he's done very well for us.
"And it's hard to dissuade him of that. If it hadn't come up, I think he'd have been happy. Even though the offer came in very late from Nottingham Forest in January, he never moaned about it at all.
"So it's an opportunity for him and it's really hard for him to turn it down.
"Ideally, I'd love him to have stayed and maybe completed after the two games. It probably wasn't going to happen.
"You've got a concern, I suppose, with the fact that Alistair played for us when there was an offer on the table, hurt himself, maybe things like that there may disappear.
"I suppose Arne was probably worried the same sort of thing might happen. From a playing viewpoint, I probably can understand that."
