With the Scottish football season over and Euro 2024 almost upon us, it’s transfer rumours that have been dominating the Celtic headlines over the last few days.
Celtic’s hunt to find a replacement for Joe Hart has been front and centre after reports linked the Parkhead club to Bayern Munich’s Daniel Peretz.
There have also been reports that Bosnian international free agent, Kenan Piric, is being watched by Celtic so it seems that Brendan Rodgers has prioritized the number one position at the club as his number one priority to fill.
However, it’s a different rumour that has annoyed Peter Grant as the former Celtic hero ran the rule over the latest one involving Hoops hero, Matt O’Riley.
Peter Grant says O’Riley rumour is ‘annoying’
We discussed yesterday how Southampton boss, Russell Martin is keen to take O’Riley from Celtic. However, the asking price of £25m seems to be putting that interest to bed but Grant has shared why the rumour has left him feeling annoyed.
Grant said [Scottish Football Podcast], “You look at it now you think to yourself, well, he’s not done any worse than Christmas time, that’s for sure.
“And you look at his stats for goals and the goals he’s created, there’s no doubt he can play.
“The interesting thing for me is Southampton have just come up [to the EPL]. Russell Martin was his manager at MK Dons.
“Does that bring something as they’ve got money there for getting into the Premier League? Would Matt go to Southampton?
“And that’s the annoying thing for me. Celtic shouldn’t be losing [O’Riley] to a Southampton. Celtic shouldn’t be losing a Ryan Christie to Bournemouth.
“But they know financially they are a different level completely. So that is the problem you have.”
Celtic have every right to hold out for the best price for one of their top talents. The club have capitalised on the riches of the Premier League before after selling the likes of Kieran Tierney to Arsenal and Virgil van Dijk to Southampton.
But where I am in total agreement with Grant is that it is a pain that these clubs who are simply not as big as Celtic have the financial muscle to come in and tempt our best players with silly contracts and large transfer fees.
Celtic will lose O’Riley at some point. However, unless it’s to a team that is already in this season’s Champions League group stages, I firmly believe the Danish international midfielder will stay beyond the summer.