James McFadden believes Celtic could be about to make a ‘statement’ in this transfer window

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Matt O’Riley’s Celtic future has turned into a summer-long transfer saga.

Celtic have rebuffed five offers from Serie A side Atalanta so far this summer as Brendan Rodgers looks to keep his star man at Celtic Park and the board look for the going rate for the quality midfielder.

There has also been interest from ten other clubs including Southampton, Brighton and Juventus as O’Riley became the most in-demand player at Celtic.

However, with Atalanta now seemingly out of the picture and O’Riley looking like he has not let the transfer speculation affect his performances, it does seem like the Celtic midfielder is still happy at the club.

This is why James McFadden believes that Celtic could be about to make a ‘statement’ if they manage to keep O’Riley beyond this summer.

McFadden says no one can take O’Riley’s place

McFadden believes that if O’Riley stays at Celtic then the midfield three of Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and the Danish international is the best Brendan Rodgers will have at the club.

McFadden told Open Goal, “If they get to the end of the window and he [Matt O’Riley] stays, what a statement that is.

“If that midfield three stays fit, you’re not getting a better option than those three.

“You can get someone who can come in and help them and sometimes make a change, but if you keep the three of them you’ll not get someone who is going to come in and put them out of the team.”

The Celtic fans will be hoping that Rodgers will be able to keep a hold of the 23-year-old even if it is just for one more season.

With the Champions League almost upon the Celtic boss, Rodgers will need O’Riley in his team if he wants to make a decent fist of getting out of the group stages.

However, as we all know, money talks and if Celtic get the price that they have valued O’Riley at, it will be difficult to turn down and he will most likely leave the club.