Matt O’Riley has been linked with three Spanish clubs.
The midfielder has been at Celtic for 18 months after stepping up from MK Dons and is bound to be attracting attention from clubs across Europe.
Already this year Celtic have lost Giorgos Giakoumakis, Josip Juranovic and Jota, with a fully functioning Player Trading Model there could be two in and two out in most transfer windows.
O’Riley has shown all of the qualities to reach the top level in the game which is why Brendan Rodgers will be keen to keep hold of the Danish u-21 internationalist.
Jota’s fee of £25m could be the new benchmark for Celtic transfer business, late this afternoon the main edition of the Daily Mail reported:
He was born in England, plays in Scotland and is eligible for Denmark but cosmopolitan Celtic midfielder Matt O’Riley could yet be plying his trade in Spain.
The 22-year-old has Real Betis, Valencia and Sevilla all monitoring developments over his future this summer. Born in Hounslow, O’Riley started out at Fulham before moving to MK Dons and was capped by England at youth level.
However, his Danish mum ensures he qualifies for Denmark who have capped him four times at U21 level. Brighton have also taken a keen interest in his progress with the Celtic but Real Betis are discussing a potential offer over the coming days. The Spanish side have been working on a loan deal for Leeds United’s Marc Roca.
In January Juranovic was seamlessly replaced by Alastair Johnston but that level of turnover is difficult to achieve.
That demonstrated the standards required in modern recruitment but Rodgers will be hoping that ‘monitoring developments’ doesn’t evolve into putting realistic offers on the table.
