“The club were very supportive”; Rodgers explains why Celtic rejected £10m summer offer

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Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has explained why the club rejected a late offer for Matt O’Riley this summer.

Hoops attacker O’Riley was the subject of a £10m bid from Leeds United in the closing days of the window. The Celtic stance was that the midfielder simply wasn’t for sale.

That has already proven to be a good decision with the Denmark youth international arguably our best performer over the past month.

Rodgers has been speaking about the last-gasp bid for O’Riley, and why he felt Celtic couldn’t lose the former MK Dons man.

“It was an open conversation,” Rodgers told the Scottish Sun. “That’s what I’ve always had here with Michael Nicholson and the guys.

“I didn’t think we could afford to lose another starter and the club were very supportive on that. They were great. We had obviously lost Carl Starfelt and lost Jota, and we knew Cameron Carter-Vickers was going to be out for a while.

“I didn’t feel we could lose another one. But of course, that’s all on the player as well. If the player really wants to move, then I’m also a believer that if he doesn’t want to be here then don’t be here.

“I’ve got experience of that where you think you can keep them for another year. But they are not the same player if they really want to go.

“I never got that feeling at all from Matt. He is investing his time in development.

“He could have left here. With the greatest respect, he could have earned significantly more money by leaving. But that is not everything for him.”

Rodgers is right to say that we couldn’t have afforded to lose another first-team player in the summer. Jota and Starfelt are the obvious two that come to mind but you could also throw Aaron Mooy’s name in as well, after the Aussie surprisingly retired from football.

Those three were all important players for us last season, as was O’Riley. Losing him, Hatate or Abada on top of the injury crisis would have left us in a really tricky place.

O’Riley is a clever guy, flanked by a family that wants the best for him. Staying at Celtic is the best thing for him right now. If he keeps up this recent form he’ll be getting more attractive offers than Leeds United in the future.

He has plenty of big things to achieve at Celtic first though. We can look forward to that.

In other news, Cameron Carter-Vicker takes big step forward towards Celtic return