Why Southampton’s next bid for Matt O’Riley needs to meet Celtic’s £25m valuation

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The Celtic Star

·3 de agosto de 2024

Why Southampton’s next bid for Matt O’Riley needs to meet Celtic’s £25m valuation

Southampton started the ball rolling in the transfer race of the summer involving Celtic’s Player of the Year Matt O’Riley.

After defeating Leeds United in the Championship playoff in May, the Saints secured the third promotion spot back to the riches of Premier League alongside Leicester City and Ipswich Town.

Matt O’Riley of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s opening goal during the Cinch Scottish Premiership match between Hearts and Celtic FC at Tynecastle on October 22, 2023 (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

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All three clubs will be active in the summer transfer window as the task of survival in the Premier League is always extremely difficult for sides coming up from the second tier of English football into one of the most competitive leagues in the world that is packed with world class talents.

It’s more likely that all three will be yo-yo clubs, heading straight back down after a miserable season in the Premier League, getting battered most weeks by much stronger opposition. However maybe one or even two can survive and that will be bad news for the likes of Nottingham Forest (17th last season so narrowly avoiding the drop), Brentford, Everton, Wolves, Fulham and Bournemouth.

Matt O’Riley and Elseid Hisaj during the UEFA Champions League match between Celtic and Lazio at Celtic Park on October 4, 2023. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)

That list comes from how the Premier League finished up last season, taking us from Bournemouth who finished 12th to Forest who had the closed call with the dreaded drop. Maybe there are a few sides who will have better luck next season and you’d expect Everton – who suffered that points deduction last season – and Brentford, who have a decent squad and are well used to a higher finish, to comfortably avoid the dog-fight next spring.

Of all the clubs, logically the Championship play-off winners have the most ground to make up on the rest and it’s clear that both Championship winners Leicester City and runners-up Ipswich have better teams than the Saints at the moment.

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone tried to sign Matt O’Riley in the January transfer window and is likely to try again this summer

The Championship play-off final is the richest game in football, worth an estimated £305m to the winners – this time around Southampton – in TV deals, sponsorship and additional revenue streams across three years. That’s even more that the biggest winner at the world best casino walked away with and incidentally you can read about the latest online casinos that are reviewed here. With that level of funding the incentive is huge for Saints boss Russell Martin to invest wisely in his playing squad to give Southampton the best chance of avoiding the Premier League’s trap-door come next May.

Every club mentioned above will be looking to improve their squads to steer clear of relegation worries and the early move by Russell Martin, with a £20m plus add-ons offer for Celtic’s Matt O’Riley certainly makes plenty of sense from a Southampton point of view.

19.08.2015. Champions League Qualifying. Celtic versus Malmo FF. Virgil van Dijk. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

However having had great bargains from Celtic previously – Virgil van Dijk and Victor Wanyama immediately spring to mind, the Saints reckon that a low-ball raid on the East End of Glasgow will work once again. That is highly unlikely as The Celtic Star has explained.

Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson is sen during the Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and Hearts at Celtic Park on May 04, 2024 . (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson has let it be known that the minimum valuation Celtic has for Matt O’Riley is £25m and no lower bid will be entertained. Southampton acting quickly is smart, their opening bid is merely a throwback to their previous dealings with Celtic that have been hugely successful for the Saints.

However O’Riley is not going to be short of suitors and there are reports of multiple clubs from the Premier League being interested. That’s before you consider Atletico Madrid, who had a bid for O’Riley rejected by Celtic in the January transfer window, and also Roma who are just one of many continental sides monitoring the situation.

Southampton are right to rate O’Riley very highly, and of course the Saints boss knows the Celtic star midfielder well from their time together at MK Dons. However if they want to hit the jackpot with the transfer win of the summer window then they need to bite the bullet and offer the asking price then hope that Russell Martin’s previous relationship with O’Riley will convince the Denmark international midfielder to head to St Mary’s Stadium to play his football rather than somewhere like the Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano in Madrid.