Whoever is tasked with replacing Matt O’Riley at Celtic next season will have quite the job on their hands.
With 19 goals in all competitions and 18 assists to boot, the Hounslow-born Denmark international arguably overtook both Kyogo Furuhashi and Callum McGregor to become Celtic’s star performer across 2023/24.
To quote manager Brendan Rodgers, a ‘really intelligent, wonderful footballer‘.
Unsurprisingly, he dominated at the club’s end of season awards too. The Player of the Year gong now sitting proudly upon his mantelpiece.
Equally unsurprisingly, interest is not in short supply.
HITC reported last week that a host of Premier League clubs – including West Ham, Everton and a Southampton side who had hoped to do a deal for around £20 million – had held talks.
Matt O’Riley is extremely keen, HITC now understands, on a move that would see him become the latest promising young talent to enrol in Atalanta’s esteemed finishing school. The Europa League winners have a PHD in fulfilling potential, and O’Riley is a prime candidate to replace Teun Koopmeiners should the Dutchman seal a £50 million switch to Juventus.
But if O’Riley is Koopmeiners’ successor, then who is the successor to O’Riley?
Celtic may need a new Matt O’Riley
Ironically enough, HITC have been told that a player who turned down a move to Celtic back in January 2022 – thus helping pave the way for O’Riley to join in his place – remains on the radar of Brendan Rodgers’ Premiership champions.
The connections between Riley McGree and Matt O’Riley go beyond the similarity of their names.
The two midfielders both excel in a creative role in the centre of the park. And both emerged on Celtic’s radar at almost exactly the same time, McGree choosing a £3 million move to Middlesbrough when leaving Charlotte FC.
The Hoops quickly turned to O’Riley, and struck a £1.5 million deal with MK Dons a week later.
“With all due respect to Celtic and Ange, my ambition is to play in the Premier League,” the Australia international told Optus Sports when explaining his decision to turn down the advances of compatriot Postecoglou.
“The position Middlesbrough are in, I feel like it was the best opportunity of getting where I want to be.”
Which is, you would imagine, the Premier League.
That dream is yet to become a reality. Michael Carrick’s side lost in the 2023 play-offs and finished outside of the top six last term.
And with only one year left on McGree’s contract – Middlesbrough will surely be open to offers if an extension cannot be agreed – the door has opened for Celtic to try again in the hope that the 25-year-old’s feelings on a potential move north of the border have changed.
Hoops still keen on Middlesbrough’s Riley McGree
McGree would be up against it attempting to replicate O’Riley’s remarkable numbers, however. He may have earned a Puskas Award nomination for a stunning scorpion kick he once scored back in Australia but the goals do not tend to flow at a particularly prolific rate.
He netted only six for Middlesbrough last term. Since moving to the Riverside, McGree has found the target 14 times in 82 matches.
But Carrick – the Manchester United icon who knows a thing or two about thriving in midfield – certainly feels that the ‘very talented’ McGree has the potential to offer a lot more.
If Rodgers can have the same influence on McGree that he exerted on O’Riley, then it is not completely out of the question that a long-time target takes his game to another level should he find himself a little more open to Celtic’s offer this time around.
“Riley is improving all the time. I still think there is a lot to come from him. But he’s been terrific and he’s growing, and he’s developing and improving all the time,” Carrick told Teesside Live back in 2023.
“He just improves game by game. You can see his confidence growing. His end product is there now with assists and goals coming more. But his overall influence too with his passing and creating space for others, and his awareness around him.”
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