We’ve finally found a club just as bad as Celtic when it comes to the art of getting a deal in their transfer negotiations…
This year Celtic have been renowned for their inability to get transfer deals over the line. Their bidding strategy is also questionable, the Adam Idah debacle is testament to that, but I think we’ve found a club just as culpable or even worse than us when it comes to the art of transfer negotiations.
Step forward Atalanta BC.
The Serie A side just put in their latest bid for Matt O’Riley, believed to around €23 million which was quite rightly kicked into touch by Celtic last night.
Their previous bids of between €15 and €17 million were all correctly kicked out, which begs the question, why did they come back in with another low ball offer when they very well know the asking price?
€23 million is around £19.5 million, and Celtic value Matt around £25 – £28 million. So the offer is seriously short of our valuation, it’s madness on part of the Italians.
Brighton had reportedly put in a bid believed to be around £25 million but that has now been clarified and while there are ongoing negotiations there has been no formal offer from the Premier League side for Matt O’Riley.
Celtic might be incapable when it comes to our own recruitment dealings, but at least we now know we’re not the only club out there who do it so badly.
Hopefully no club meets Celtic’s valuation and that results in Matt O’Riley staying at Celtic and proving himself as a top quality footballer in the Champions League this season. What a massive boost that would be if it’s the way things turn out.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
UPDATE: Celtic have knocked back a fourth bid of £20m from Atalanta for midfielder Matt O’Riley.
The Serie A club have been trying to land the Denmark international for over a month.
Brighton are also in talks with Celtic for O’Riley, but are yet to make an official offer. https://t.co/z9bmad3sjb
— Anthony Joseph (@AnthonyRJoseph) August 10, 2024
There’s only two Peter Lawell’s !!!!!!
HH
Surprised to see you doubling-down on this.
Atalanta have great reputation in the transfer market and will easily survive your attempt to savage them.
But this trope about ‘just pay them what they’re asking for is a Scottish Cringe response of trying to prove your as good and as flush as the rest of them.
In the real world everybody tries to recruit at the lowest price they can obtain what they think a player is worth and all have a ceiling price, and they try to sell for as high a price as possible.
Nobody has gone from an SPFL club to Serie A for any real money at all. The Italian Press and other Serie A clubs think Atalanta are paying over the odds for a guy yet to establish at International level and coming from a peripheral unfancied league. But the other clubs have a sneaking regard for Atalanta’s successes in finding unfenced talents who turn out to be good.
In the transfer market ahead of this season, Atalanta acquired 48 new players for a total expenditure of €78.10 million.
Conversely, they offloaded 49 players, fetching a significant €152.59 million in return.
And they won a Europa final 3:0 versus Leverkusen on a long unbeaten streak.
So I’d wait and see whether Atalanta are successful in landing Matt before I start slagging them, if I were you. But even if they don’t they’ll still follow their principles of being canny in their spend and imposing ceilings on how high they are willing to go, just like all sensible folk do.
The splash the cash, give them what they want is a daft policy and you shouldn’t be giving it headroom.
Low ball Atalanta & Celtic??? Behave!
Europa League was Atalanta’s first trophy win since the early 1960s. The Leicester City of Serie A. Oh wait, Leicester also won a second trophy under Brendan. Champions League this season but it’s not going to be a given going forward.
The low-ball comments in Just an Ordinary Bhoy’s article points at the frustration that the Celtic support feels regarding our own transfer dealings and in particular leaving us with Kyogo as our only striker. Atalanta’s approach isn’t likely to succeed unless they meet the Celtic valuation or Celtic lower their demands, which will come with a backlash.
This weird perspective that you are virtuous if you pay the asking price straight up, in a market where bargaining is key.
We might be slow in our negotiations with clubs but the alternative is fraught with danger, particularly where mid to long-term revenue streams are so intrinsically linked to your existence as a viable organisation.