Callum McGregor has called for Celtic to retain Matt O’Riley for another season, with the Celtic captain insisting that they’ll still make good money on the highly rated midfielder next summer.
Speaking ahead of Celtic’s third and final match on their USA Tour, this time against Chelsea after wins against DC United (4-0) and English Champions Manchester City (4-3), McGregor spoke for the Celtic players, revealing that they’d all love O’Riley to hang around for another season.
And if the latest offer from Southampton is anything to go by (do they think Celtic is holding a half price sale this week with their £14m offer?) then Matt will be going nowhere this summer.
However the window will surely have it’s challenges for Celtic and if our Board get their valuation of £25m met then we all know the inevitable will happen, regardless of what Callum McGregor or the Celtic support thinks.
“We’d love him to stay, for sure. Listen, he’s a hugely important player for us. He was important last year and hopefully that will be the case again this year,” Calmac told Football Scotland. “The club has him on a long contract. There’s no reason why we can’t keep him. Even if we keep him for another 12 months he could still be sold for good money.
“Let’s hope that’s how it works out. It’s another year here, another maybe eight or 10 games in the Champions League for him to learn and get even better. We hope we can keep him and don’t see why not. But obviously that’s above my pay grade,” the Celtic captain admitted.
Brendan Rodgers says he wants to add quality signings but another way to look at this is that having Matt O’Riley starring for Celtic in the Champions League makes sure our team has more quality than if he’s sold this summer.
And if Atalanta and Southampton are the teams that O’Riley is attracting bids from at the moment, a stand-out campaign for Celtic in Europe plus breaking into the Denmark squad, will surely raise that a level or two next time around.
And what a boost it will give the Celtic support if the board hold firm and say that Matt O’Riley has agreed to stay at the club for this season.
I genuinely think he will stay. O’Reilly sounds like a clever bloke. I think he knows that his worth will increase in a year, but don’t ignore the fact that he is loving being here and that will count for a lot. Then again, I thought Ange would stay too, so wtf do I know!
Always tend to look at some of the fees that the EPL teams are prepared to pay out?
And what is most noticeable at present, is just how much the fees been paid out so far, seems to have massively dropped in general imo?
Suppose it had to happen sometime, especially as it had become totally ridiculous within Europe, for the amount been paid for shite?
Matt Oreily, certainly doesn’t fall into such a category whatsoever.
The rumoured 25/30M price, is a reasonable price to be asking, even within a reduced market imo?
Still find it insulting that just because Oreily represents ourselves in Scottish football, that it means he’s worth less than the asking price?
We are in a comfortable position where we don’t need to sell financially.
Oreily has the full support of our supporters, in hopefully he can still stay another season with ourselves?
Might be a longshot all the same?
But Matt also showing what a fantastic professional he is, both on and off the pitch.
Personally don’t believe Matt requires that stepping stone club within the bigger league clubs imo?
But there still remains the snobbery factor within the bigger clubs within the bigger leagues also, which is to our advantage at present imo?
If the bigger clubs within the bigger leagues aren’t prepared to pay the reasonable fee, then there loss and our gain?
Would be happy enough for the bigger clubs with bigger budgets to continue with the trend of overpaying money upon shite?
And even Oreily is potentially worth more to ourselves in revenue gained next season, then what we could pocket in actually selling him now, also imo?
You know the sad part if he is as good as they say then why sell we got a big season ahead,and just like to add why not pay Aberdeen the money they want for Bojan Miovski and bring him in we could pay 3.5m and give them a player on loan or to keep,the time is now to bring in left back a CF and Midfielder and CH pay the cash and get this huge season under way to the Celtic board do this now..