Acclimatising to a new league, a new club and new challenges is not proving straightforward for one of West Ham’s statement summer signings, meaning Hammers supporters are yet to see his best form.
That’s according to former striker and club legend Frank McAvennie, who has seen more of Arne Engels than most West Ham fans.
The young midfielder joined West Ham in the summer as a record Championship signing and has yet to explode in the division in the way his Hammers bosses must have hoped.
McAvennie believes Engels has yet to take off since arriving at West Ham
Speaking to Celtic fan site 67hailhail, McAvennie, another who, alongside Engels, has worn the colours of both teams, believes that the young Belgian has yet to get going in his new east London home:
“He’s steady,” said McAvennie about Engels’ start at West Ham. “He isn’t the same as what he was at Celtic. He doesn’t overshine. He isn’t doing overly magnificent things. Goes about his business.
As the Celtic fan site points out, without being outstanding, the young Belgian is building a solid platform with his stats at West Ham whilst, of course, he’s already getting noticed for some quality deliveries from set pieces:
“To the surprise of no Celtic supporters, one thing Engels is getting huge praise for is his set-pieces, because he is wicked from those positions…from 11 Championship games this term, Engels has earned himself a Sofascore rating of 7.36, including one appearance in the Team of the Week.”
West Ham fans will hope there’s an awful lot more to come as Engels settles into life as a Hammer. McAvennie’s opinion is evidently that there’s far more to the youngster’s game than he’s shown to date. At 23 he’s still on an upward trajectory, so hopefully his best years lie ahead in a claret and blue shirt.
However, young Arne has a big price tag to live up to, which experience tells us is often a tough task to manage. Just ask Maximilian Kilman.
I think with Engels is that The English football is a big step up from the Scottish game, so we have got to give him the chance to get used to the pace and physical side of the game.
Yes I do believe players are not playing to their full potential because they are being held back to the way Nuno wants to play.
The system is making our game ver unexciting to watch because we are chasing the game from early goals.
Taty, Bowen, Masaka and Engels has suffered and are not playing like they were.
Pablo I’d the only player that tends to roam everywhere in defence, midfield and attack.The other players need to follow his energy and enthusiasm
He definitely deserves time and is a good player to have in your team. Hope to see him hitting passes one day, the way he can hit crosses. That would be great to see.
I do believe NES does not always get the best out of players and part of this is restricting their freedom of movement on a pitch – except Kante.
Same thing with Fernandes, was a creative midfielder but his primary role was overwhelmingly defensive – cannot both attack and defend when team are often outnumbered in midfield.
Taty & Pablo used to interchange positions when they first started (Feb 2026) but now, Taty stays within a certain distance of penalty box, no longer pulling opponent CBs out of position and result is he is very quiet and not influencing games much. He is still the very technical forward he always was with good off the ball movement, average finisher. He is not very physical, nor a sprinter but if he is told not to move out of position, you dull what skills he does bring to a team.
Similarly never see wingers interchange, nor Bowen roaming, until last desperate 20 mins of a match we are losing.
Hope he continues to get better. He’s only 23, so worth giving the lad some time. But right now would I rather have him or Orford out there? For me, it’s Orford. Even younger and strikes me as more complete. Engels isn’t giving us a ton more than we would’ve gotten out of JWP at this point. Again, hope he hits the moon, but should be second choice to Kante and Orford right now.
Nice piece Martin – and a balanced view from Frankie Mac
Let’s hope that Engels grows in his role
COYI