Why Arne Engels is West Ham no-brainer and his league-leading Celtic USP
West Ham United would be contenders for Championship signing of the summer transfer window with Arne Engels.
The Hammers are still waiting to welcome some new faces to the London Stadium this summer, but patience could be a virtue.
With Crysencio Summerville appearing close to leaving West Ham, some significant funds could soon be freed up to go and reinvest into Nuno Espirito Santo's squad.
Engels could be in the Irons' sights too, with the 22-year-old midfielder fresh off the back of scoring seven goals and registering eight assists in 46 total appearances for Celtic last season.
Replacing Mateus Fernandes was always going to be extremely tough for West Ham, with that task made close to impossible as a Championship side.
However, securing Engels' services would give them their best chance of doing so, and maybe even upgrading on the now-Tottenham man.
Why Arne Engels has massive West Ham attacking potential
West Ham Zone has been covering West Ham's reported interest in Engels since the first links emerged in recent days.
Any deal for the Belgian international is sure to set a new Championship transfer record, which may serve to put some Hammers fans off from making such a commitment.
Some may instantly, and unfairly, be sceptical due to him plying his trade in the Scottish Premiership, but this is also a midfielder who has played 51 times in the German Bundesliga with Augsburg and has Champions League pedigree.
But the numbers he's been putting up in his two years with Celtic show why if West Ham were to capture his services ahead of numerous transfer rivals this summer, they would be laying a cornerstone piece to their promotion puzzle.
As per FotMob, Engels created 42 chances in the Scottish Premiership last season and delivered 29 successful crosses, which ranked him in the top 7.8 and 5.2 per cent of all central midfielders in that division.
He also took 63 touches in the opposition box, won 32 aerial duels, played 43 accurate long balls and 856 successful passes, all of which placed him among the very best in his position.
Engels' debut 2024-25 campaign at Celtic Park was even better though, scoring 10 goals and providing 13 assists in 52 appearances in all competitions.
Indeed, no Scottish Premiership central midfielder took more touches in the opposition box (107), or registered a higher expected goals (10.1) or expected assists (8.46) than Engels did that term from 34 league games.
On top of that, he created 57 chances, took 63 shots, delivered 51 successful crosses and played 1,128 successful passes respectively.
But, there is one key trait of his that adds further value to his services, and one that can very much make the difference between winning and losing.
Why goalkeepers fear Engels so much
The importance of having a reliable penalty taker should never be lost on anyone, and West Ham may well be in need of one moving forward.
Of the three penalties the Hammers scored in the Premier League last term, Lucas Paqueta scored two of them and Jarrod Bowen got the other respectively.
The former of those two has of course already left the London Stadium, whilst the latter could yet leave this summer.
In Engels, the Irons would find a genuine specialist in the art of penalty taking, as he's proven during his time in Scotland.
Three of his five Scottish Premiership goals scored last season were from the penalty spot, with no central midfielder in the league netting more than that.
Not only that, but he also scored a penalty in the Europa League against FC Utrecht.
Engels also led his positional rivals in the 2024-25 season, where he scored a whopping seven times from 12 yards in the Scottish Premiership.
In addition to those goals, he scored from the spot in the Champions League against Slovan Bratislava, proving just how skilled he is in this art.
Overall then, if West Ham have the funds and Engels is keen on moving to the London Stadium, then getting him to sign on the dotted line would be an absolute no-brainer.