Celtic told to make £20m transfer demand but 'he will go' claim arises over key star wanted in England

Former Celtic defender Charlie MulgrewFormer Celtic defender Charlie Mulgrew
Former Celtic defender Charlie Mulgrew | SNS Group
The Celtic star has been linked with a transfer to Brighton.

Former Celtic defender Charlie Mulgrew believes Matt O’Riley will no longer be a Hoops player by the end of the transfer window.

Reports have emerged that Brighton are pressing forward with plans to sign the Danish international, with the Hoops likely to demand north of £20m for their star man. They received a £25m fee for Kieran Tierney when he left for Arsenal in 2019 and landed the same amount when Jota joined Al Ittihad last summer.

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Speaking on the midfielder’s future, ex-Celtic star Mulgrew says money will eventually do the talking surrounding the midfielder. He said when asked if the Premiership champions would be able to keep O’Riley: "That would be brilliant but I don’t know how realistic it is for Celtic.

"The way Celtic have operated in the past is that when players come and excel, Celtic have sold when teams come calling. You would imagine at some point in the window, he will go.

"Everyone at the club would love to keep hold of Matt O’Riley if they could, but money talks. If the right offer is made, which I imagine it will be, then he would need to go. That’s maybe why [Paulo] Bernardo is there and they’ll be looking for other players to come in.

"You look at his age, he’s an international, he’s a top player - proven at CL level - so you’d imagine £20m would be minimum."

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Mulgrew believes it’s a good example of the player-trading model at Celtic, with O’Riley arriving in 2022 from MK Dons for a fee in the region of £1.5m. He added: “Van Dijk, Wanyama, Edouard, Dembele, these players who have done it in the past.

“The model they have got has been successful and nobody can argue with the quality that gets brought in and sold for even more money. Everybody benefits, the club benefits, the player benefits, it’s a no-brainer.

“All the Celtic fans and the club will want to hold onto these players but there comes a point where... you keep them too long, they become unhappy, lose form and then it’s a disaster as the player doesn’t want to be there and you are holding onto a player against his will. It’s getting the timing right and Celtic have got it spot on in the past.”

Charlie Mulgrew was promoting Premier Sports coverage of the Scottish Premiership, Premier Sports Cup and the Scottish Cup. Premier Sports is available to stream from premiersports.com or via your TV provider on Sky, Virgin TV and Amazon Prime as an add-on subscription.

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