Celtic Football Club has turned down an offer from West Ham United for midfielder Arne Engels, with manager Martin O'Neill confirming the bid fell short of the club's valuation. Additionally, O'Neill revealed that Everton has expressed interest in Canadian full-back Alistair Johnston.
"The West Ham bid for Belgium midfielder Engels, 22, 'doesn't remotely meet our valuation'," O'Neill stated. He added that Everton manager David Moyes had contacted him regarding Johnston, 27.
"Everton have been in contact," O'Neill explained. "I'm not sure whether there's been a bid in there for that one, but they've been in contact saying that there would be.
"In fairness, David Moyes did call me last week to say there would be contact."
This development follows a failed February offer of £25 million from Nottingham Forest for Engels, who transferred to Celtic Park from Augsburg in August 2024. Johnston, a participant in all five of Canada's World Cup matches, joined the Scottish champions from Montreal in January 2023.
O'Neill described the interest in both players as "disappointing" but "to be expected," acknowledging the difficulty in preventing players from pursuing opportunities in "a big, big league." He emphasized the club's objective to retain its top players.
"Our job is to try and keep them, try and do our best to keep them," he said. "If that's not possible, naturally we'll have to try and get replacements in. To replace those players would be a difficult task."
Celtic has already seen Daizen Maeda depart for Ipswich Town this summer and has acquired forwards Kasper Hogh and Camilo Duran. O'Neill anticipates further transfer activity.
"I felt that something would happen with some of our top players," O'Neill commented. "I was hoping as each day goes past that there wouldn't be any serious interest. But that was never going to happen.
"But we need players in anyway. And we're in the hunt for that. We're getting close. I don't know how close is close, but we are definitely getting close."