Arne Engels: Why did Celtic turn down £25m bid from Nottingham Forest?

O’Neill has spent a lot of time batting away questions about when reinforcements would arrive, joking that he was seeing journalists’ faces in his sleep as they repeated familiar questions.

The manager was much more direct when asked about the the board’s decision to reject the Engels offer.

“For here, that’s an awful lot of money,” he said. “Personally, I’m delighted that the board turned it down.

“It’s really tempting and it’s come at a very late stage, I must admit, so real great credit to them.

“Arne didn’t kick up a fuss about it either.

“We can look at things again in the summer but obviously that was a major statement.”

Selling Engels without bringing in a replacement would have left O’Neill short on midfield options at a time when he is trying to take the fight to league leaders Hearts and resurgent Rangers. It’s not too fanciful to imagine that he would have made his feelings crystal clear to the Celtic hierarchy when told about Forest’s interest.

Club captain Callum McGregor remains a standout and leader in the centre of the park, while summer signing Benjamin Nygren has contributed goals and creativity. But Reo Hatate has not been anywhere near his energetic best this season and Paulo Bernardo has now been at Celtic for two-and-a-half years and looks no closer to establishing himself as a starter.

The cover simply wasn’t there to let Engels move as Celtic fight for the Premiership trophy, compete for the Scottish Cup and look to get past Stuttgart in the Europa League.

O’Neill is happy and it remains to be seen if the episode impacts Engels, who cuts a calm and composed figure on and off the pitch.

Supporters, however, seemed split on whether the decision was good business, or an opportunity missed.