Leicester are reportedly looking at Matt O’Riley as a replacement for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as the transfer window cranks into action.
The report comes from transfer specialist Alan Nixon in The Sun, he does come up with a huge amount of transfer tales with more than 30 years of contacts to call on, with the north west of England and the Midlands his core area.
O’Riley signed a new long term contract with Celtic in September but as the season evolved with an increased supply of goals and assists the former MK Dons man seemed increasingly likely to become Celtic’s next big transfer sale.
A year ago Jota left Celtic for £25m, it is anticipated that a similar or higher fee will be required for O’Riley with Southampton recently linked with the 23-year-old.
The Sun reports:
LEICESTER CITY are joining the race for Celtic’s Matt O’Riley.
New Foxes manager Steve Cooper needs a replacement for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall after his £30million move to Chelsea.
Club scouts think O’Riley would replace his goals and assists as they prepare for the Premier League.
But Celtic want a Scottish record fee of over £25m for the Denmark midfielder.
O’Riley, 23, is also wanted by his former MK Dons boss Russell Martin at Southampton and has been watched by Brighton and several other English top-flight sides.
Leicester may need to pay more than the money they made on Dewsbury-Hall’s move to land O’Riley and will be at full stretch to pull that deal off.
How many signings will Celtic make in time for SPFL starter on August 4?
None, it will be in the final few weeks
One signing
Two signings
Four or more
So far Celtic haven’t added to last season’s squad with Joe Hart, Paulo Bernardo and Adam Idah no longer available.
It seems inevitable that O’Riley will be playing elsewhere next season but it wouldn’t look good if he was sold before the squad was strengthened.
Leicester seem unlikely to be spending big this summer despite being promoted back to the EPL. Over the last two seasons they have come under scrutiny over Financial Sustainability Regulations with the onus on them to sell rather than buy to balance the books.
Talks appear to be on-going with Benfica and Norwich over Bernardo and Idah with Brendan Rodgers stating on Friday that he’s hoping to have additions to the squad that travels to the USA for three matches between July 21 and 27.
The zin thing about Matt O’Riley is he is not like most footballers. People seem to have forgotten that he left mk dons without having a new club lined up.
If Matt thinks he can progress at Celtic, he’ll stay if not he will leave with our thanks and blessings. Think he’ be here next season
Only a half wit would sign for Leicester, they are sure to kick off the season with probably -6 or -10 points a huge deficit to catch up just to stay with the regular strugglers. So would be almost certainly relegated again. Quite WHY the FA waited to add this points deduction is unclear, I would hate to have been one of those sides cheated out of promotion by this.
O’Riley seems a very intelligent guy, he knows he will continue to improve and can wait for better opportuities to come abroad. His value will only continue to increase, so I hope we negotiate a good sell on 25-35%