Celtic on alert as transfer vultures hover

John Kennedy knows that it won’t be long before the big fish make their moves for Matt O’Riley.

Two years ago the midfielder was finding his feet in League One with MK Dons, now he is entering the new year as a full internationalist with two Champions League campaigns on his CV.

Against opponents from La Liga and Serie A O’Riley has been perfectly at home, features that will have been noted by Celtic’s opponents and others.

Kennedy has watched a regular supply of players move on from Celtic to the top leagues and recognises all of the key features in the Danish internationalist.

Speaking to the Daily Record the Celtic coach said:

The model, we know, ultimately, when the big fish come, they come up with the money, then the players might have ambitions to go on and play in bigger leagues. We accept that.

But it’s just having a steady flow. So Matty’s come in the past couple of years, he’s progressed really well and, when they are attracting attention, it’s because things are going in the right direction. That’s the nature of it. Again, we just have to make sure that, behind that, we have the next one in line.

It will be domestic fare only now for O’Riley and his current team-mates with Celtic very much involved in a title race after throwing points away against Motherwell and Kilmarnock.

Having O’Riley’s form matched by others to deliver 15 points from the five matches upto the winter break will go a long way to deciding the outcome of the SPFL Premiership title.