Martin O’Neill has launched an impassioned defence of Celtic’s January transfer business — before issuing a fresh plea for peace between the club’s board and furious supporters.
O’Neill praised the club’s resolve for standing firm and booting out a blockbuster bid of £25million from Nottingham Forest for Arne Engels on deadline day.
The 73-year-old also insisted he was happy with the overall make-up of the squad, despite the fact Celtic failed to spend a penny on transfer fees during the window.
They instead secured five new players on loan deals, with Julian Araujo and Tomas Cvancara being joined by deadline-day recruits Junior Adamu, Joel Mvuka and Benjamin Arthur.
O’Neill also confirmed that Celtic are keen to pursue a move for free agent Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, with talks already being held with the former Arsenal, Liverpool and England midfielder.
Despite growing anger among fans and the ongoing civil war within the club, O’Neill was defiant yesterday when asked about Celtic’s business over recent weeks.
Martin O’Neill saw the club bring in three loan players and keep hold of key man Arne Engels
Austrian striker Junior Adamu has arrived on loan from German Bundesliga outfit Freiburg
Arne Engels trained yesterday and O’Neill claimed the Belgian is content to stay in Glasgow
On the decision to boot out the Engels bid, he said: ‘No, the board turned it down. Obviously, it’s arrived very, very late in the day and we had these offers coming in.
‘I actually did a press conference just after our game against Falkirk [on Sunday], unaware that there had been an offer gone in. I think that the press seemed to get to know about them before the club did.
‘But anyway, that’s beside the point. It was very late in proceedings and the board turned them down.
‘Considering the amounts of money that you’re talking about, because that would be very, very big up here, that was remarkable.
‘January is a hard window. For instance, we had a deal set up with Frosinone for the lad coming in [Fares Ghedjemis] and he chose to stay.
‘That’s entirely his decision to make. He wanted to see if Frosinone can get into Serie A. So that’s it.
‘But, overall, I’m happy. It’s nice to get a few people in, in different positions. What do I think they can add? I think they can help.
‘I think they can help in the manner in which I think that the two new arrivals [Araujo and Cvancara] who have played some games for us have done really fine.
‘I’m just happy with them, and if the rest of them make that sort of contribution, then I’ll be delighted.’
Frosinone wide man Fares Ghedjemis opted to stay in Italy to try and help his club reach Serie A
O’Neill also denied the suggestion that Engels could now become unsettled, given the enormity of the offer kicked out by Celtic.
Forest had initially offered £14m and £17m for the Belgian international, before coming in with a £25m bid that would have equalled Celtic’s club record sale.
‘It’s an awful lot of money,’ continued the Parkhead boss. ‘Personally, I am delighted that the board turned it down. It is, you know, it’s really tempting.
‘I think Arne, I think he didn’t kick up a fuss about it either, even though it’s come in late.
‘I think that his agent was happy enough with the situation. He said that this is it, I think Arne is happy here, he wants to see what the season will bring at the end. And we can re-look at things in the summertime. Obviously, life changes like that there. But you know, that was a major statement.’
Celtic are due at Pittodrie tonight to play Aberdeen, seeking to keep pace in the title race as they trail leaders Hearts by six points.
Winger Joel Mvuka has joined on loan from Lorient in a bid to kickstart his career at Celtic
They will then face Dundee in the Scottish Cup at the weekend, with suggestions that there could be fresh protests among fans over the club’s transfer business.
On the need for unity, O’Neill continued: ‘I’m hoping that there’ll be some sort of reconciliation between everyone. I think that is absolutely necessary at the football club.
‘For us to go forward now, to get ourselves going, we qualified at least for another two games into the knockout stages of the Europa League.
‘The atmosphere against Utrecht was really, really good, but we can do with a reconciliation, no question about that.
‘I’m up here to try and win a couple of football matches. If there’s a bit of shenanigans going on in the background, I can’t do anything about that at this minute.
‘But seriously, when I get an opportunity, I shall try and join the Peace Corps sometime and try and work it out from there.’
Former Liverpool and England midfielder Oxlade-Chamberlain is training with first club Arsenal
Oxlade-Chamberlain has been training with his former club Arsenal recent as he seeks to find himself a new club. The 32-year-old, who has been plagued by injury throughout his career, hasn’t played any competitive football since leaving Besiktas at the end of last season.
Asked if he liked the player and would be keen on a deal, O’Neill said: ‘I do, I genuinely do, yes. He has trained at Arsenal for some time since his time in Turkey.
‘I spoke to him and yeah… But I mean, I’m sure he’ll have lots of options. Maybe closer to London as well too, like anything else.
‘I would be very interested in doing it. But as I said to you, I’m surprised that people haven’t taken him up closer to the area. He’s been training with Arsenal for quite some considerable time, so in terms of fitness, it’s not match fitness, but we’ll see. He’s got loads of options.
‘Listen, he knows about the football club, he’s a big friend of Joe Hart’s. Joe has spoken to him and not on our behalf. That was a conversation he had with Joe.
‘It’s something that would be interesting. If it doesn’t materialise, it doesn’t materialise.’
