MATT O’RILEY insists he will not be distracted by transfer talk as he and his team-mates concentrate solely on Celtic.
The elegant midfielder, a bargain £1.5million arrival from English third-tier outfit MK Dons at the turn of the year, has been linked with Arsenal and Newcastle in recent times.
Josip Juranovic has seen his value rocket following his performances for Croatia in the World Cup Finals and the right-back who cost £2.5million from Legia Warsaw in August last year is valued at £25million by club goalscoring great Chris Sutton and other shrewd soccer judges.
JOY BHOYS…Matt O’Riley races to congratulate comeback captain Callum McGregor after his late winner against Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
Spanish giants Barcelona are just one of the clubs reported to be monitoring the 27-year-old defender’s progress.
Giorgos Giakoumakis has been involved in speculation after knocking back a contract extension at the champions and it has been suggested cash-rich clubs in Saudia Arabia are interested in the Greek international striker, 28, who cost £2.5million from Dutch club VVV-Venlo last summer.
Twenty-two-year-old O’Riley admitted no-one is taking their eye off the ball with Ange Postecoglou’s side restoring their nine-point advantage at the Premiership pinnacle following their dramatic late 1-0 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie yesterday with comeback skipper Callum McGregor on target.
TREBLE YELL…Matt O’Riley joins Callum McGregor and Josip Juranovic as they celebrate another Celtic goal.
Referring to January Sales talk, the Denmark Under-21 international middle-of-the-park performer, talking to the Glasgow Times, said: “We don’t speak about that when we are together.
“Everyone is focused on what our goal is as a team and that is to win games and perform well for the club.
“There is always going to be noise externally. That is inevitable. It is probably something I have got more used to since I have been here.
“At the start, it was quite a lot for me to take. Now, I am more used to it. To be honest, a lot of the stuff you see might not be true – and some of it might be.
“But, at the same time, we are here to do a job for this football club and as long as none of us is distracted from that we will be fine.”
CALLUM’S CRACKER IS WORTH THE WAIT
