Former team-mate expects £20m ace to leave Celtic and says he ‘deserves’ move

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Matt O’Riley ‘deserves’ a big-money transfer after winning the domestic treble under Ange Postecoglou at Scottish Premiership champions Celtic. 

And before you begin chucking a bucketload of angry emails our way, we’d just like to point out that this is not the view of us, but of Matt O’Riley’s former MK Dons team-mate. 

Warren O’Hora played alongside the London-born Denmark international before he joined Celtic in a £1.5 million deal back in January 2022; another inspired piece of business by the now-departed Ange Postecoglou. 

O’Riley has won no fewer than five trophies in just 18 months north of the border. No one in green-and-white produced more than his 14 assists in 2022/23 either; O’Riley’s creativity and wonderful set-piece delivery earning him a place on Leicester City’s radar. 

The recently-relegated Foxes reportedly view the former Fulham youngster as a potential replacement for their coveted talisman James Maddison. 

Is Celtic star Matt O’Riley staying or going this summer?

“He deserves it,” O’Hora told the One Up Top podcast when quizzed about the prospect of O’Riley making a big-money move away from Parkhead. “And I think he’ll be getting one now. We’ll see. 

“He’s the best player I’ve played with. In training, he wasn’t nothing mad, so we’d not really seen him play. But once he got onto the pitch, he was like a machine. Left-foot, right-foot, everything.

“That’s why he got the move to Celtic. (Now), he’s playing at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid in the Champions League, and has won the treble.”

O’Riley, according to ESPN, is valued at a fee closer to £20 million these days. Manchester United and Arsenal have sent scouts to watch the one-time Southampton target, with the man himself admitting that both Newcastle and Leicester had made their interest known last summer. 

“I know that Leicester showed a lot of interest in me. And I think Newcastle were there too,” O’Riley told TipsBladet at the time.

“It’s great to get some recognition. It means that I’m doing well at Celtic. But as I say, Celtic is the perfect place for me right now. It’s a big club, we play in the Champions League, the fans are insanely good and the team is good.

“It’s a perfect place to be. I also think it’s a good place to be if I want to go to the World Cup with Denmark.”