Matt O'Riley

This is far too soon for me.

Bernardo has looked good in the last few weeks and I hope he continues to go from strength to strength and I think he will. However, it's been 4/5 games... that's all it's been. He's needed time and we have given him that time but we now need to go out there and find a replacement to come in and hit the ground running in midfield. Someone who is able to score 10 plus and assist 10 plus a season.

That is Albert Gronbaek. He's going to cost us a record fee but let's * get him in. We should never be scared of moving players on. It's the whole point of the transfer strategy but we have failed to upgrade positions where we have sold players.

GG to Oh- Downgrade
Juranovic to Johnstone- Downgrade
Jota to Palma- Downgrade
Starfelt to Scales/Nawrocki- Downgrade (signs are there that Nawrocki looks good for the second half of the season)
Mooy to Bernardo- Downgrade(signs are looking good though for second half of the season)

 

Annoying as *..

 

Aye I’m joking about Anton Rodgers … I think


You’re right though, replacing Oreilly will be near impossible with the fees we usually pay for players, part of me can see us actually signing a couple of players should he be sold… but again it’s really likely we would come out of it a far weaker team.

 

It’s irrelevant how much they are willing to pay. We won’t invest it anyway. With circa £60m on the line for wining the league, letting our best player this season go would be arguably the most incompetent thing the board has done in the past year. That’s not easy to achieve either given the summer transfer window.

 

It's putting the shiters up me man

 

Would rather have quality on the pitch mate and winning league titles than a healthy bank balance...

 

Has to remain here until the summer. Ball is in our court. I think O’Riley would understand the need for him to remain here until then also. He doesn’t strike me as someone who would spit the dummy and down tools either. He would get the head down and continue to play the way he has all season. He will get his move in the summer.

 

As much as I have little to no faith in the board surely even they can't that be that daft to sell him in January ... Surely

 

The answer shouldnt be “No” it should be “Not right now”.

 

If this was the summer, i could see us accepting anything over £20m. This window it would need to be record breaking ie £30m + sell on.

That being said, I can see this move happening - hope im wrong.

 

Could be Madrid are doing their summer business now with the looks to MOR and this other lad for next season.

 

As * as it is for us, what a midfield they would have with O'Riley and Vermeeren. Midfield for the next 6/7 years if they want.

 

Absolutely. Proactive in the scouting and market. Whilst we're fed its too difficult to buy in January...have a loan deal....maybe.

Need to ban January is a difficult time to buy. Absolutely nonsense. It cam be done easily if the proper work put in and you're not being a tight fisted *.

 

Balls in Celtics court, hes under contract. We just have to wait and see do we accept the offer and go from there. I suppose it will depend how high AM go, no chance we are rejecting anything north of 20 odd million, title race or no

 

The Sun are saying we have or will be knocking back Madrid

 

Must of come in low..

 

Aye it could work both ways.

o'Reilly might think that he may not get a better offer from a bigger club than Atletico.....so he might panic and push for the move right now

Or also the board might think that they might not get a bigger or better offer for him and push for the move to go through from they're side.

It would be madness to accept a loan to buy deal though. If the big clubs want him then they need to cough up major cash up front in my opinion.

But I do not want to lose him. Cause we would not be able to replace him

 

If he wants to leave, let him leave. Nobody is bigger than the club. We'll be fine. That said, I highly doubt the board will sign a legit replacement. Hatate coming back would likely be the de facto replacement. He has hardly played this season.

starters: McGregor - Hatate - Bernardo
backup: Iwata - Holm - Turnbull - Vata (can provide cover at AM)

Depth-wise, 7 players should be enough for 3 positions. Talent-wise, we'll probably miss O'Riley. Hopefully, Vata would flourish in a bigger role.

 

They'll put in an initial bid to test the waters and let the player/agent know the interest is real, if they really want him they'll come back in heavier.

 

I don’t think Atletico Madrid would offer us what we would want. I know they have spent money in the past, but the fact is an EPL side could offer the same or more in the summer.

O’Riley might be disappointed but I think players understand we won’t sell key players in January. I’d be more worried about him being passively distracted, which with the best will in the world is tough to avoid.

The important thing for me is for Celtic to have a list of 5-10 quality midfielders that they can pull the trigger on in the summer. That should already be in place of course.