16 Jul 2024 08:50:22
So Juventus now supposedly in the mix for Matt O'Riley, not sure how much truth there is to it but it was inevitable there were going to be tons of rumours about him.
The point I'd like to make though and to get the opinions of others on here is if they would rather sell him for the £25m plus that's been floated about or keep him here?
I know there's a lot us fans aren't privy to and it's not always as easy to get deals done but for me I would be happy to sell him as long as Brendan was able to invest the full amount back into the squad. As much as losing a talent as O'Riley would hurt, I feel if we invested wisely and got Bernardo in he has the potential to Vill that void. We need more quality signings to go forward, it's clear it's quality over quantity, but we need to get rid of a lot of fringe players aswell.
I think we now need to find a way to be a lot more solid and difficult to play against from defence to midfield, especially in Europe as the same mistakes keep happening, a solid centre back to parter CCV with scales as back up and an upgrade on Taylor at left back is what's needed imo. Once that is sorted I feel like we need a solid number 6 to play alongside mcgregor who can cover the ground a bit more as too often in Europe mcgregor is left isolated and overrun, the same mistakes can't keep happening. Play with a double pivot number 6 with Bernardo or hatate in front of them.
In a nutshell if we did sell O'Riley and managed to bring in a new Centre half, left back, defensive mid, along with the signings of Bernardo, Idah and a better quality winger than what we have I think as a team we would be much stronger and better equipped overall.
It's just my opinion but let's keep the faith and see how it pans out ?.
16 Jul 2024 09:51:31
A would keep him for another yr, av heard people say what if he gets a bad injury or loss of form, what if he doesn’t and has a cracking CL then we benefit still mb (£40m) sell on. life is full of if and buts. there is plenty in bank spend a fair amount on quality, a think it was BB that mentioned our next accounts could see us with £120m + surely we could spend 30/ 40m on fees and wages and let us have a go a CL and bury them in next cpl yrs.
16 Jul 2024 09:57:39
Read an interview with BR this morning. He's talking about Holme and Lawal. He says both have skills, are good footballers, but need to do more, more movement, close down quicker, get the ball and move forward quicker
He sad they needed to look at the young lad Turnkey who came on, his movement was good, went forward into space, into the box and got his goal.
He ended up saying Holme and Lawal are good players, they have something and will get into teams but not Celtic, so they need to do more.
16 Jul 2024 10:16:33
You can't keep an unhappy player. How much MO'R is angling for a move I'm not sure. But he certainly didn't let speculation affect his performances like we have seen with some players. So kudos there. The club will have their price, and once it is met, it's down to Matt.
Now I value MO'R highly. 25-30m. That's the sort of player I want to keep because we ain't buying one.
My issue is, would 25m be reinvested properly into two or three real quality players that actually improve us? Shame on me for thinking that it would because we've been burned before.
16 Jul 2024 11:29:40
Get a bidding war started and get as much as we can.
16 Jul 2024 11:59:16
I would be surprised if mor is not sold this window, his stock is high, there are several interested parties and I think he would move on to take his game to the next level.
We are just trying to milk as much cash as possible from the deal.
16 Jul 2024 12:08:15
I agree with the points you've made Mick.
If the player is happy at Celtic and can ignore the 'noise' then I'd prefer he stayed and put better players around him to see how we can progress on the European front.
We have more than enough resources to improve our first team squad AND keep hold of MOR, at least for another season.
I'd agree that, if the two GK's are signing and we resign both Bernardo and Idah, then we need an upgrade on Scales, Taylor as well as a CDM and Winger.
That for me would be a very good window and it doesn't need to cost us a fortune.
☘️ ? ☘️.
16 Jul 2024 12:12:31
Henke, be sad day if he goes, he cost us 1.5 million just over a year ago and from day one looked a great prospect.
I do not think we need to spend stupid money to replace him, we just need our recruitment job to do what they did under Ange and find the next MOR.
It shouldn't take spending 25 million on 3 replacements to do that and players valued around 8 million are not going to come here because their agents push them towards the pub league. More wages and bigger cut for the agent.
We get Bernardo back, we know what we are getting, no time needed to fit in, he knows the club, the level of expectation, what is needed to play for us and BR clearly thinks he can be a great player for us and he us costing around 3.5 million. A great price for what we are getting.
I would rather be spending on a striker and experienced centre back, possibly an out of contract CB with a bigger wage. No offence to Scales but he has hit his ceiling imo, so Idah plus a defender would be a good window.
Add them to the 2 keepers and Barnardo, keep MOR and we would be improved imo.
I think this season we will see a different Kuhn with his issues now behind him and Palma needs to really challenge Maeda thus year.
16 Jul 2024 12:39:28
MIP, if we replace MO'R with a better player for a fraction of what we sell him for then fair play to the club. But it's a big ask.
16 Jul 2024 12:43:40
Celtic will stick to the process and sell Matt but only if he wants to leave to play in a better league.
Players and agents see Celtic as a good stepping stone due to our previous departures.
The players leaving probably go to a smaller club but they get the chance to play in a much bigger league and make loads more money.
I can see Bernardo improving under Brendan.
The fact Brendan wants to sign him, shows that he sees massive potential.
Celtic previously played a 4-2-3-1 under Brendan in Europe with Brown and Calmac but we still got ran over in midfield.
Neil Lennon made Celtic harder to play against in Europe but his team still received a severe beating in Barcelona.
I liked the 3-5-2 Lenny played in Rome which was effective although you still need that little bit of luck in those games.
16 Jul 2024 13:09:21
Henke that a good dream you had, we ain't replacing O'Riley will a better player, not a chance of that.
16 Jul 2024 13:10:22
It is by no means certain that we will sell MO’R, as us fans don’t know if he really wants to leave this summer . Like Buzz Bomb says we will sell him if we get a good offer and Matt wants to go . The bid we get would need to be an authentic bid and not a SMSM bid attempting to unsettle player . Let’s wait and see how this plays out as I think none of has an idea .
16 Jul 2024 14:10:19
Henke ??????.
16 Jul 2024 14:37:28
If we were offered 35m then id take it but at 25m or even 30m id rather keep hold of him as he still has 3yrs on his deal. If he has a good showing in the 8 champions league matches (possibly more) then his value could go up more next season.
It comes with slight risk of him picking up injuries or his form declines and there's no way the board or probably even oriley would take that risk.
I think the 1st offer of £30m+ some addons and he will be gone. Itll be only a matter of time, which is a shame as he is the type of players we need to get better. Until something major changes that's just the way things will continue to go.
16 Jul 2024 15:46:08
BigJamie, this is it - we should look to improve. But at best I think we'll replace with 'potential'. O'Riley's replacement could end up being better than him but in that time the team on the park will be weaker. We've seen this movie before - Bernardo replaces MO'R (even though they played in the same team) we take one step backwards before taking one forwards and there's more money in the bank. Hoping to be totally wrong on that.
16 Jul 2024 17:46:08
It’s rather futile to talk about buying a certain player if we get him for £4 m and we will sell a player if we get £30 m for him .
If a player is a good buy at £4 m surely he doesn’t become a bad buy at £6 m Us fans don’t see the whole picture of what is happening in our whole transfer window at any one time . I don’t see why or how a player could do a good job for us at £4 m and all of a sudden couldn’t improve us at £6 m . Our negotiators who see the whole picture much try to buy player as cheap as possible but must be prepared to give more if they have to and depending who else Celtic are having an interest in, we may have to pay more than the player is worth if he fills an important role for us and we can’t get another player to do the job we need him to do.
If we have a player who has demanded from Celtic that he wants to move on . Although Celtic can say they will only listen to bids over £30m, we may have to take less eg £25m if we can’t get more . We have allowed the transfer situation to move too far, by allowing player to get to the stage he has definitely asked to move, we needed manager to work hard for most of previous season and even get Board to offer him a new contract, as we need to keep all our top players . If player really wants to go, we need to try to get as much as possible for him and move him on as amicably as possible.
16 Jul 2024 18:43:21
It is only natural that the player we buy will not be as good as Mo’R A player as good as Matt there would be no chance of getting him to come to SPL . The cement player won’t be an exact replica or clone of Matt, he will have some skills better and unfortunately some worse.