BRENDAN RODGERS has warned clubs circling in-demand Matt O’Riley that the playmaker will be going nowhere if Celtic’s valuation is not met.
And the Hoops boss revealed there has been “no team anywhere near” the figure that could prise the 23-year-old Norway international from the clutches of the champions.
Europa League winners Atalanta have reportedly had three bids rejected – with the latest said to be an initial £15million with add-ons – which are offers simply wasting everyone’s time.
Serie A rivals Juventus, Roma and Inter Milan plus Spanish giants Atletico Madrid are also apparently monitoring the situation of the skilful midfielder who still has three years to run on his contract.
HOOP HOOP HOORAY…Matt O’Riley celebrates his opening goal in the 4-1 win over Chelsea in Indiana at the weekend.
Premier League new boys Southampton, with O’Riley’s former MK Dons manager Russell Martin in charge, have also been linked with the player who cost a bargain £1.5million when he was recruited from the English third-tier club in January 2022.
O’Riley’s value has soared as he has won three successive Premiership titles at Parkhead and contributed massively in last season’s double-winning season with 19 goals and 18 assists.
He is poised to team up with skipper Callum McGregor and Japanese ace Reo Hatate in the team’s engine room when the team kick off the new league campaign against Kilmarnock on Sunday on Flag Day in the east end of Glasgow.
In the midst of continued interest and ill-informed speculation, Rodgers said: “It’s been actually straight forward with Matt because he’s such a great professional.
“The challenge for teams coming to a club like Celtic is they sometimes can place their value on the league and not the player.
“Obviously, there are riches in other leagues much greater than ours that allows players to go and improve their conditions for their life. We all understand that.
IRISH AYES…Brendan Rodgers congratulates Scottish Cup matchwinner Adam Idah.
“What’s important for me is if a player does leave here they pay the value for the player and that isn’t something that always happens.
“No player will leave here unless it’s for the right valuation and at this moment in time there’s been no team that’s been anywhere near that.”
On the prospect of Republic of Ireland striker Adam Idah returning to the club after his nine goals in 19 loan appearances last time out, Rodgers, speaking to Sky Sports, continued: “Adam’s a Norwich player.
“He obviously did fantastically with us and we’ll just see what happens over the coming weeks.
“We still have work to do, but in transfers there’s lots of moving parts. It’s never as easy as just seeing a player and bringing him in.
“We would hope by the end of August that we would have the team supported how we would want. It’s so important, you cannot snooze in this game of football.
“You always have to be improving and developing and we want to ensure we have an improved squad for this season in order to take on all the challenges we will have.
UP, UP AND AWAY…Paulo Bernardo celebrates a goal against Livingston.
“Speaking to a lot of managers, it’s been a slow window. Especially with a lot of the top English teams being away and having the Euros and everything else, squads are a little bit broken.
“It’s not really until they come back and are all together that they can see what they have and obviously there’s a knock-on effect from that.
“Everyone always wants to have their work done as soon as they can, we’d love to have had everything done for the first game of the season, but that doesn’t necessarily always end up being the case.
“My hope is that we can be much stronger coming out of the August window than what we finished last season.”
Goalkeepers Kasper Schmeichel and Viljami Sinisalo are Celtic’s only summer signings so far, but Rodgers is confident Paulo Bernardo will at last finalise his return to the club after last term’s impressive loan season from Benfica.
The 22-year-old Portuguese middle-of-the-park performer made 33 appearances in the previous crusade and a £3.5million fee has allegedly been accepted by the Lisbon club.
The Parkhead gaffer added: “Hopefully, it’s a matter of hours.”
