This was a week of offers for Matt O’Riley, but you know what? Each one gets more insulting than the last. Perhaps certain realities have not sunk in for the clubs who have made bids. The first of those realities is that we’ve not signed any outfield player yet; our club’s transfer policy has infuriated much of the fan-base. And this has consequences.
It means that we cannot weaken the first team squad any further without even those who have stayed calm thus far absolutely losing their minds. And it keeps intact the cash pile. The cash pile is what’s important here. Because it’s the cash pile that enables us to tell clubs who come in with these derisory offers to beat it. And we will continue to.
Celtic’s valuation of Matt O’Riley is in no way stupid or over the top. I think we’ve set the price at just the right level. We might be based in Scotland but the market is nuts, and our valuation is realistic, and its especially so when you consider the fees lesser footballers have gone for. Two clubs so far have submitted bids, and they are offensive in many ways, in part because neither of them even comes up to the level of the one Atletico made us in January.
We have plenty of money in the bank. We could do an extensive rebuild with it without needing to sell Matt O’Riley. In fact, our board would look even worse if they sold him and just added the money to the growing pile of it. The fact is, few clubs in Europe are less in need of selling their best players than Celtic, and although there’s a number we’d be mad not to do business at none of these clubs has come close to hitting that figure yet.
There is a growing feeling amongst fans that we might not, in fact, sell O’Riley in this window. Both he and the club would benefit, immeasurably, from another season together and particularly with those Champions League Group Stage games to come. The chances are that O’Riley’s valuation is only going to increase with those, and so is the level of offer he might be able to get.
Atalanta are a really good side, but Southampton cannot be the ceiling as far as England goes. There are better clubs than them, and their offers have been derisory and I feel as if Russell Martin was trying to be a smartarse the other day when he said he wouldn’t talk about our player and then proceeded to do exactly that.
We are under no pressure here. Matt is not banging the door down begging to get out, and I have said right from the moment the window open that those who talk about this being inevitable need to look up the meaning of the word. Until we get the right offer the player is not going anywhere and he understands this just fine, and he accepts it too.
I am genuinely starting to think that he’s going to be here for another year. McGregor has spoken about his own hope that O’Riley sticks around a bit longer and that convinces me that the conversation has already been had inside the walls of the club. If we don’t get the offer we want that will almost certainly be the case when the summer window closes.
Sloop John B never sounded sooo good.
Walked down the Coupland Road.
Saw a hun about to explode.
I asked him where he was going and all he could say….
Ah wana go home, ah wana go home
Ave nae ground ta go to, a wana go home.
Ah pointed to yon big crane, said all yir tears are in vain.
Yir grounds a disaster zone yi canny go home.
Oh yi canny go home, oh yi canny go home
Yiv nae ground ta go to, yi canny go home.
The problem is when o’Riley or any player decides is time to leave, for they have power to make that happen in most cases
Given that he has spoken about practising meditation as a way of keeping his head straight,
positive thinking and personal contentment i think that he is not the type to be peering over the fence to see if the grass is greener and think that one more season will happen fingers crossed would love if he stayed as long as Henrik you never know
If Atalata & Southampton don’t want to get real £££mm out tell them we’re to go.
Even £30m offer is pointless as the board won’t replace like with like…. Go back to Dembele, Tierney, VVD, Forster etc so I hope he’s here another year & we ad 3 quality signings. Ww ALL know where!!
Am looking at Arsenal selling Smith Rowe for what £35mill and hes only a squad player with him getting bit parts of 10 mins here and 10 mins there. Dont care that he plays in “England” that tells you we are right to hold out for the proper offer for Matt.
Matt is too important for us. We do not need their derisory offers and their idea of his value is derisory!
I don’t care how much we get for O’Riley,we won’t spend any of it on players, it’ll go to shareholders, keep up the good work James
Anyone know how much has been offered as the article doesn’t say…
And I certainly ain’t gonna even attempt to go within a million miles of a Scottish Scummy Football Media click outlet to look at anti Celtic hatred and lies…
Besides that would be financially beneficial to the bags of scum…
Yep – I do hate them that much indeed !
£15 million plus add-on’s according to Sky Sports, and that’s the 3rd bid from Atalanta, so they are clearly taking the piss and hoping to unsettle him. Thankfully O’Riley seems to have his head screwed on and understands the club’s position, though we should be leaving the Italians in no doubt that it’s time to either get real or get to fuck!!
Re: the papers, have you saw the circulation figures mate, barely anyone buys them any more. A lot of folk refuse to listen to Clyde and contribute to their advertising revenues either.
Maybe celtic inserted a buy out clause when he got the better contract.
Possible, though doesn’t seem likely if we’ve set a valuation and are holding out for that.
Either way though, Atletico bid £20 million in Jan and that clearly didn’t activate any buy-out clause, so Atalanta submitting bids £5 – £6 million below that clearly aren’t gonna force our hand.