Marvin Bartley has explained at length why Celtic are simply not in a position to demand at least £50m for Atletico Madrid-linked star Matt O’Riley.
The Danish midfielder was the subject of a loan to buy bid from the Spanish giants this month but that offer has been booted out by Celtic, as confirmed by manager Brendan Rodgers on Thursday.
O’Riley isn’t going nowhere but it’s now highly likely he will be sold in the summer, whether it be Atletico or perhaps a Premier League club down south.
Celtic fan callers on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard were adamant that the Bhoys should be asking for so much more than £20-25m for O’Riley, with one mooting £50m as a fee.
But Queen of the South manager Bartley told those punters that it is impossible for the Hoops to set O’Riley’s value at £50m for factors such as wages and the level he currently plays at.
Marvin Bartley on Matt O’Riley
Asked by host Gordon Duncan if Celtic can start the bidding at £50m for O’Riley, Bartley replied: “No, they can’t. You have to think about the wages players pay in England as well.
“You have players down there playing for teams like West Ham that are on £150k-a-week and that’s without going into the top six in the league.
“We (Scottish football) have a cap on what we can get for our players because the wages have to be relevant to what you are demanding for them.
“It’s a selling market up here unfortunately but it is good for the players to come up here and do well, Rangers and Celtic are just the same as most clubs in Europe. But as I said, there’s a real ceiling to what we can get for our players if they do end up leaving.
“I understand the (Celtic) fans speaking about it and wanting more but he got bought from MK Dons. He’s proven himself at League One level regardless of how good anyone thought Matt O’Riley was going to be.
“Now he’s gone to a higher level with Celtic and he’s done it again. But there’s a food chain here, you can’t suddenly start demanding £50m for players because what happens is the next Matt O’Riley that Celtic want, he doesn’t come.
“People like (Moussa) Dembele who have come before into the league and sold on, that’s perfect for Celtic who can say ‘listen, look what we do to these players’.
“As soon as you start stopping them and become unrealistic with how much you want for them, it stops your player trading so to speak.
Bartley then went on to address another caller who posed this: “If you paid £250k for a Rolls Royce in Scotland, you pay £250k for a Rolls Royce in England! You don’t cross the border at Carlisle and get it cheaper.”
Bartley offered a retort and said: “It doesn’t work that way and I’ll give you an example. If someone is looking for a central midfielder down in the English Premier League and you’re comparing him against Declan Rice or (Kevin) De Bruyne, then you come up to Scotland and say (Andy Halliday) and comparing him against Marvin Bartley, there’s a massive difference.
“So you can’t say ‘he did extremely well against Marvin Bartley so you should pay the same amount of money for someone doing well against De Bruyne’ – it doesn’t work that way.
“Our league is unfortunately not at the same level as England’s, that’s a fact. So for Atletico Madrid, they don’t know if Matt O’Riley can go to their level and play week in, week out consistently.
“If Matt O’Riley is playing in La Liga and doing well, he’d be worth more than £25m or £30m because they know he can do it in that league against better players.”
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