Sources: Spanish giants make their move for Celtic midfielder Matt O’Riley, 23-year-old ready to leave

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• EXCLUSIVE from Graeme Bailey

Atletico Madrid have made a bid for Celtic midfielder Matt O’Riley, HITC Football can confirm.

HITC understands that Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid has made an offer for Celtic star Matt O’Riley and are trying to prise the Danish midfielder away from Scotland.

Celtic midfielder O’Riley has had another promising season for the Scottish giants with the Danish ace scoring 10 times and providing seven assists in the Scottish Premiership this campaign alone.

Last season, he scored three times and provided 12 assists for the Scottish side and it always seemed just a matter of time before the Danish midfielder would be tempted by a move away from Celtic.

O’Riley deal

A host of clubs, as HITC revealed previously, have been tracking O’Riley and his current club Celtic always feared that they would receive an offer and now Atletico have stepped in – having been impressed with him during their Champions League campaign.

Ironically, earlier this season O’Riley provided an assist for the Scottish side against Atletico during the 2-2 draw against the Spanish side in this season’s European campaign.

HITC sources suggest that the offer is a loan with an obligation in the summer, and O’Riley is understood to be ready to depart Glasgow in this window.

A move to La Liga and Simeone may well be too good of an opportunity to turn down for the Danish midfielder and he could add something different to the engine room of the Spanish giants.

Atletico’s busy winter market

It’s very rare that big clubs spend heavily in the January transfer window as they have usually done the bulk of their business in the summer with the winter window left solely for player sales.

Well for Atletico, this has been a very busy month, in terms of incomings. HITC reported that Royal Antwerp midfielder Arthur Vermeeren is closing in on a move to the Civitas Metropolitan Stadium.

As well as Belgian midfielder Vermeeren, Italian forward Moise Kean is also closing in on a move to the Spanish side after a rather unsuccessful spell at Juventus.

These signings would pave the way for Turkish defender Caglar Soyuncu and Argentine winger Angel Correa to leave the club in the final week of the window.