Celtic star, Matt O’Riley, has certainly had his suitors during his relatively short stint at the club.
Signed for £1.5m from MK Dons in January 2022, O’Riley has been so good that Barry Ferguson even values him at £15m.
However, it seems that English Premier League club, Brentford, is keeping close tabs on O’Riley and journalist, Dean Jones, explains why it would surprise him if the Danish u21 star moved there.
Jones said [GiveMeSport], “It’s no surprise that O’Riley is hitting the radar of teams like Brentford.
“You can imagine him fitting into various teams in the top flight who play a specific way, especially if their signings are stats-driven, and they’ve been closely monitoring what O’Riley has been putting up at Celtic recently.
“He is a really impressive player who has been working really hard to get back to this standard of football. Obviously, it would be a strange one if he did end up at Brentford given he started his career down the road at Fulham.
“At some point, he is going to test himself in the Premier League. I don’t personally think it will be just yet. I think he is genuinely committed to what Celtic are doing right now.
“But, at some point, he is going to get a temptation to go to the Premier League and prove himself there. It’ll be interesting when that time comes because I think that there will be quite a lot of competition to sign him.”
Matt O’Riley is destined for a huge career after Celtic
Look, I want O’Riley to stay at Celtic for the rest of his career but the Hoops supporters are not daft. They are also realists.
They know O’Riley is going to move on from the SPFL eventually and when he does, the club will be heavily compensated with a huge transfer fee.
However, no disrespect to Brentford, he will not be going to a middle-of-the-road EPL club that is likely to be fighting relegation each season.
O’Riley will get his big move to a top-end English side. He could easily fit into a team like Spurs who play attractive and attacking football. And having the chance to work with Ange Postecoglou again?
That could seriously appeal to the youngster who has credited the Aussie for playing a major part in his development at Celtic.
Anyway, the Celtic fans will be hoping any big move will be a long way off for O’Riley. They will also be hoping that he stays this season to win the league and then into next season when Celtic will be in the revamped Champions League kicks off.
In other news, Chris Sutton believes 24-year-old will play against Atletico Madrid after his ‘brilliant’ Dingwall performance