Manager ‘very sad’ after Celtic beat him to ‘incredible’ £1.5m player

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Swansea City manager Russell Martin admits he was ‘very sad’ to miss out on Matt O’Riley when his former MK Dons star joined Celtic in a £1.5 million deal back in January 2022. 

If you were to rank all of the successful signings made by Celtic during the Ange Postecoglou era – and there’s been plenty of those – then Matt O’Riley would surely rank somewhere near the very top. Jostling for position with Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota. 

The silky, left-footed playmaker has already picked up two Scottish Premiership winners’ medals in less than 18 months in green-and-white. 

Not that Martin is surprised to see his one-time Stadium MK schemer make such an impression. The now-Southampton-bound gaffer knew from the very first moment he laid eyes on O’Riley that the Hounslow-born Denmark U21 international was a player of immense talent and vast potential. 

Matt O’Riley wins another Premiership title at Celtic

“I was aware of him, but that he’d been at a higher level and was on the radar of clubs like Dortmund,” Martin recalls, speaking to Sky Sports.  

“That first day… Wow. What a technician. We knew we had a player there from the first day and that perhaps we might not get a chance to sign someone of this quality at League One level very often.

“In the first few games for us, he was incredible. We played Spurs in pre-season and he was outstanding against them. We went and played at Rochdale on a Tuesday night. It was freezing and the pitch was an ice rink, but Matt put on a masterclass.”

Martin left MK Dons for Swansea during the summer of 2021. The one-time Rangers defender admits that he tried – and ultimately failed – to take O’Riley with him to South Wales. 

“We knew then he was above our level. It was because of his mentality as much as anything,” Martin adds. “He backed himself. Myself and my staff left for Swansea and we tried to bring him there. It was a very sad moment for me when the deal we tried to do fell down.

“But then he went to Celtic and he’s just kept on progressing. And I’m not surprised.

“It’s his mentality that sets him apart. He’s supremely confident and a super pro; his diet is spot on, and he’s really athletic, more than he is given credit for. He’s got everything to play at the top – for Denmark and in the Premier League.”