By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham ITK ExWHUEmployee Patreon has revealed that the Hammers are set to ramp up their interest in Celtic’s Arne Engels over the next few days.
Claret & Hugh exclusively broke the news on Tuesday that the club had identified three transfer targets at the Glasgow club.
Whilst the identities of the players were not revealed at the time, we did discover that one was Japanese.
C&H have since discovered that another is Portuguese and could be known to Nuno Espírito Santo.
Koppen’s Knowledge Of Scotland
The interest in the Celtic trio appears to have been prompted by West Ham director of recruitment Nils Koppen, who has a good knowledge of the Scottish game following his time at Glasgow Rangers.
Why Engels Appeals
As for Engels, he seems to be highly regarded.
At just 22, he’s done well for Celtic and has broken into a stacked Belgium national team.
Engels has decent versatility. He’s naturally a creative, ball-playing central midfielder, but he can seamlessly fill in on the right wing or even drop back to right-back if the team is in a pickle.
He has a good mix of height, vision and a good right foot, which makes him a major threat from set-pieces.
However, his reported £25 million price tag could make it difficult to prise him away from Glasgow this summer.
I also support Celtic, Engels might work Maeda will definitely be an asset he is one of my favourite players to ever play for Celtic his work rate is off the charts and am surprised he is still there I thought we should have signed him before.
We are just taking far too long, looking at players out of our reach. If premier or European teams are looking, just move on. I think we need to look at possible abroad for more unknown players or maybe losing fringe premier players.
We are having difficulty acknowledging we are a championship club now
So please get some bodies in a.s.a.p
Gonzo this worries me players from Scotland where Koppen worked previously shows how short sighted his outlook and vision are TAKING THE EASY WAY OUT
I agree. There have been so few quality players to come from the SPL over the last 15 years. I can only think of Van Dijk.
A little less conversation, a little more action, please.
£25m if you don’t want to pay it move on.
Whu stance.
Does he have pace?
Ok, sounds like good news but hope they now get a shift on as if the guy does not fancy the move then need to look at alternatives before the season actually starts. 3 weeks tomorrow for the cup match.