Nottingham Forest tried, and failed with a bid for West Ham’s top midfield target Arne Engels in August of last year. The Tricky trees’ bid of £25 million was knocked back and the Belgian stayed in Scotland for another season.
Fast forward and West Ham have now had two plus bids knocked back as they try to take Engels to east London ahead of the start of the Championship season. As negotiations go public the Hammers risk the very real threat of Forest returning again to tempt the talented 22 year old to the Premier League rather than a sideways one to London.
West Ham have already overcome the hurdle of convincing Engels to move to the Championship, by all accounts. And now the price has been made public, it’s pretty much put up or shut up time.
The Scottish Champions have by all accounts, made it clear where the goal posts lie.
According to SkySports:
“According to Sky Sports reporter Anthony Joseph, the Scottish giants are holding out for a package worth around £25 million, which is funnily enough Forest’s final offer from January, before considering any deal for Engels” (Footballfancast.com)
So West Ham’s team of negotiators have a very stark choice. Pay up or play the game and risk losing the player. If Nuno has decided that he is their man – and claims that West Ham are negotiating in a different fashion this year rather than the scattergun approach favoured by Sullivan – suggest that the club chooses one target and then sees negotiations through or walks away before considering other players.
£25 million then. Time to pay up or walk away.
Martin O Neill shared earlier we were way off Celtics valuation so it seems we are trying to do things on the cheap or Celtic have an unrealistic valuation. would be good to know what the bid and valuation are if you can find that out ?