Celtic told to make £20m transfer demand but ‘he will go’ claim arises over key star wanted in England
The Celtic player has been connected to a Brighton move.
Charlie Mulgrew, a former Celtic defender, predicts that Matt O’Riley will leave the team at the end of the transfer window.
According to reports, Brighton is moving quickly to sign the Danish international, and the Hoops will probably want for more than £20 million for their top player. When Kieran Tierney moved for Arsenal in 2019, they earned a £25 million price; similarly, when Jota joined Al Ittihad in the summer of last year, they received a similar sum.Regarding the midfielder’s future, former Celtic player Mulgrew predicts that money will eventually speak louder than anything else. When asked if O’Riley would be allowed to stay with the Premiership winners, he responded, “That would be brilliant but I don’t know how realistic it is
for Celtic.”In the past, Celtic has sold players to teams who approach them when they emerge as elite players. You would think he would leave at some time throughout the window.Although everyone at the club would really like to hang onto Matt O’Riley, money talks. He’d have to go if the appropriate offer came up, which I think it will. Perhaps for this reason, they will be searching for additional players to join, including [Paulo] Bernardo.
“You look at his age, he’s an international, he’s a top player – proven at CL level – so you’d imagine £20m would be minimum.”Mulgrew thinks O’Riley, who will cost around £1.5 million to sign when he leaves MK Dons in 2022, is a nice illustration of Celtic’s player-trading strategy. “These players who have done it in the past, Van Dijk, Wanyama, Edouard, Dembele,” he continued.
“No one can contest the quality that is brought in and sold for even more money; their approach has proven successful. It makes sense for everyone—the player, the club, and everyone else.”Everyone who supports Celtic and the team will want to hang onto these players, but there comes a time when if you keep them around for too long, they get dissatisfied and lose their form, which may lead to a disastrous situation where the player refuses to be there and you are keeping him around against his will. It’s all about timing, and Celtic has historically nailed it.
