Brighton & Hove Albion are preparing to finalise Matt O’Riley’s departure from Celtic as they make room in their squad for the midfield star.
O’Riley has been one of the best signings at Celtic in recent years, arriving for just £1.5m from MK Dons and taking a journey to be considered one of the best players in Scotland.
The midfielder has scored 27 goals and assisted 35 times in 124 appearances since 2022, showing his most impressive form over the last season under Brendan Rodgers.
Still just 23, the ceiling on his future potential is high and that has alerted clubs all over Europe to his situation this summer.
Brighton set to finalise Matt O’Riley move ‘soon’
Now, the dominoes are falling on his permanent exit as Brighton shape themselves up to get their potentially record-breaking deal over the line.
Fabrizio Romano reports that Napoli are close to completing a transfer for Brighton talent Billy Gilmour, with club and player negotiations complete. The player is due to travel for a medical.
That in turn is allowing the Seagulls to advance their talks on O’Riley and finalise that agreement with Celtic, said to be worth at least £26m.
Celtic must find a strong O’Riley replacement
Celtic are also positioning themselves to keep Rodgers’ options strong coming out of the summer transfer window.
Talents from MLS and the Bundesliga such as Mateusz Bogusz and Arne Engels have been linked in recent days as the club prepare to spend big on the midfield.
The nature of the Celtic model means that losing a big player every couple of years has become the norm for fans. They still want to see the club show ambition in the market and Celtic can’t let O’Riley out the door without first lining up a suitable replacement.
Ideally, it’ll all run as smoothly as O’Riley leaving and Celtic quickly concluding deals elsewhere, much like Brighton are doing with Gilmour.
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