Celtic Should Tell Those Outside The Club To Mind Their Own Business On O’Riley.

As we go deeper into the summer, one saga is going to dominate the proceedings more than any other – unless this Kyogo thing has legs, and I very much doubt it.

It will be the Matt O’Riley story, which will have as many variations as Heinz has flavours by the time it is settled one way or the other. If I had to guess I’d say he’ll still be at the club when the new season starts, although if he and his agents want to go, we won’t stand in his way.

Losing Matt O’Riley will be a very big blow, and we’re damned lucky that the loss of Jota and the failure to replace his goals and assists didn’t cost us in the season that just ended.

We need to do much better in the transfer market this time around, and whilst I want him to stay, I also get that his departure would enable to us spend more. It’s inconceivable that we won’t get £20 million plus for him, especially as various clubs are allegedly lined up to pay it.

But if O’Riley decides to stay, even if it’s for just one more year, we should be delighted with that. Because he’s only going to get better and European Champions League football will only make him more valuable to us, so that when he does move on, we get the proverbial kings ransom for him. I think he would do well to consider that option.

This week, our intrepid hacks tried to get a story out of the Danish national team coach’s comments wherein he said that he understands that O’Riley and others play in poorer leagues than some of the others in the squad. Our media tried its best to amplify that into a story suggesting that he might find it hard to select O’Riley if he continues playing here.

I don’t know whether he meant that or not, or if he’d do it or not, but he wouldn’t be the first national coach to bang on about what he thinks that our players should do. And I dislike that strongly, because that’s an abysmal way to behave and if these guys were managing clubs, they’d be damned angry if somebody did that to them, and they’d be right to be.

If it’s not the national coaches doing this it’s people in our media with “helpful” suggestions that this is the right time for him to go and that he’s only wasting his time here. I can usually cope with that when it’s desperate pro-Ibrox hacks but a lot of our so-called “friends” and “allies” are going to say the self-same thing, as if they can’t wait for him to depart.

And just for once I’d like it very much if our club, through whatever means, told these people to butt out and mind their own business. Just shut up and let things take their course without any outside commentary or “advice”, most of which will be for the sake of making trouble anyway.

National coaches in particular should be told to keep their traps shut when talking about the futures of our footballers, and although I don’t think that’s what was happening in this case – the media looking for those famous “cryptic teases” aside – I would welcome someone at Parkhead telling those who might want to attempt to muddy the waters not to bother.

There will be speculation. That’s fine.

But a queue of people telling one of the best players in this country that he should be packing his bags at the first offer strikes me as somewhat obscene, and it’s not something that responsible people in our media and the game in general should be involving themselves it.

Celtic should make it clear that they will view such interventions harshly, no matter which direction they come from, no matter who it is who is making them.