Matt O'Riley

Never been less phased by a signing as well, thought nothing of him when he signed. Then BOOM! Like every other Ange signing

 

When I heard his story about Fulham onto mkdons and then us I thought "he'll be warming our bench for a while with our midfield"

Now I'm thinking hes good enough to take anyone out the midfield. What a player.

 

Joe hart

 

That was as good a cameo as I can ever remember seeing yesterday. Should have had 3 assists at least and some of his passing/touches were sublime. One he squeezed through to maeda didn’t even look possible with a tennis ball ffs.

 

Creates for fun..

I know Hatate is getting a lot of plaudits and rightly so. A hugely impressive signing, but the sky is the limit for this boy as well..

The fact he's only 21 as well and has made the jump from league 1 seamlessly....is mind blowing considering we've been away at Tynecastle and at home to the huns in 2 of his first 3 game's..

I know a lot won't want to be saying it so soon but there was a lot of talk about us losing most of our assets..

This boy, due to his age and being English born....is gonna net us an absolute fortune down the line. Same with Hatate. Hopefully Jota and Carter-Vickers sign up as they're the same. Juranovic. Abada. Hope we keep them all for year's but our recruitment has been that good that we've got plenty of big money sale's to come..

I've been that impressed by him that I think he's one of the first name's on the team sheet for me..

 

What a find.

Very intelligent player.
Not highlighted enough is his play without the ball, which is brilliant.
Created lots of space v the other lot, which in turn opened up for others.

If he can keep playing at the level he has started at, he will be a massive player for us in the coming years.

 

Well you certainly nailed it as O'Riley is a top quality player. A joy to watch and what an incredible signing.

 

Yeah mate iv been looking to try and get a source for this online but been unable to find one. Id be interested to see which stats he excelled in, although we can probably make a decent guess.
Just read that Fulham had a 50% sell on fee to MK Dons, which if true, is unbelievable that they sold him to us for only £1.5m.
Id imagine ML Dons also have a sell on clause as well to us.
But what a player he looks already.

Things change fast in football and theres a real excitement around the team again after being so far off it last season.
Its gona be interesting to see how Ange rotates and uses the squad. Aberdeen is huge. They all are now.

 

He's going to be important to opening up the sheeps defence tomorrow night.

 

Arguably turning out already....to be a bigger bargain then Ledley when we stole him away from Cardiff for a pittance

 

Think he'll easily surpass Ledley tbh. O'Riley's ceiling looks far higher and no doubt we'll make a far bigger profit on him too.

 

If O'Riley continues on his current trajectory then one day a comparison like this could be laughable.

Let's hope it is.

 

For the first time in years we could actually rest McGregor and not be weakened..

Want to see him as the deeplying playmaker role, would absolutely run the show.

 

Disclaimer: I would never normally talk about one of our players being sold etc., especially early on, let alone a few weeks in.

However, I’ll break that rule for a moment.

I think O’Riley is an interesting case. We’ve all been blown away by just how good this kid is. He looks like a seasoned pro, stepping in to our toughest domestic games like they’re nothing.

You could imagine if he keeps playing like this until the end of the season, especially being English, he will get noticed. I know he’s quite a considered path so far but it increasingly feels like he’s fell through the cracks of the English academies.

We’ve seen how much Man City paid for Roberts and that was like 7 years ago. It’s very early but if he keeps playing like he has, being English, I could see someone coming in with aggressive bid very early on.

Obviously we should tell them to * off.

 

I don't know if it's so much of him falling through the cracks of larger academies, Fulham has a reasonable track record of bringing guys through.

It seems more like he took the bold decision at 20yo to value first-team opportunities over a more lucrative contract at a bigger club.

It's one I hope we see more young players taking. Far too many sign those deals with the likes of Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd etc. that have virtually no chance of ever getting a first-team opportunity.

If Roberts had pushed for a move to us when we wanted to make it permanent, it's almost certain he'd be in a much better position than he is now.

Kent is a wee dour-faced weirdo and nowhere near the player they bill him as but I respect his humility to realise he was never getting in ahead of Salah, Mane, Firminho etc.

If O'Riley can give us 2-3 years at a high level then it's only natural that English clubs will come with the cash and he will go with our thanks.

 

Yeah this is what I meant. 'Falling through' is probably a poor choice of words from me. I would imagine each English club has a team in charge of picking up top talent from any of the academies (especially since the explosion of profitable talent coming out recently) so from their point of view they'll feel like they somehow missed out on him, which is why I would imagine they're discussing him right now and would consider testing our resolve (and O'Rileys) early on if he continues his form.

You're 100% right though - the reality is the player has made a very honest, intelligent and rare decision.

Yeah the Huns * it with Kent because Liverpool didn't want him and absolutely no other club was interested in him after a poor season with them. Without checking, I'm sure his stats have pretty consistently been poor with the exception of the Covid cup. £7m was ridiculous for them to pay. I'm 99% sure Liverpool would've just let him run down his contract on loan at a League 1 club.

Agree and I think this is what would happen. I usually hate talking about stuff like this early on but O'Riley's path has been quite unusual so I think it presents an interesting situation, and hopefully more players follow his lead.

 

Fancy him to get his first goal for us tonight.

 

He got 10 goals in 54 games for MK Dons so he does chip in with a decent tally of goals. Would be brilliant if he opened his Celtic account tonight for sure.

 

Should of buried one against united at home but won't be long till he gets his first.