Celtic told to accept record-breaking Matt O'Riley bid - pundit
Celtic will be “holding out” for a record-breaking fee to sell Matt O’Riley this summer after rejecting a £14.3million bid from Atalanta United.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, former Rangers defender Alan Hutton admitted that he thought Celtic were “right to reject” the Serie A side’s offer.
This is the second bid that the club have made for the in-demand midfielder, but Celtic reportedly knocked it back.
O’Riley scored 19 goals and provided 18 assists in 49 appearances for the Hoops last season and has gained plenty of attention this summer.
Celtic are aiming to receive a club-record fee for the Denmark international, with their previous record being Jota’s £25million sale to Al-Ittihad.
Celtic can expect the Matt O’Riley transfer saga to run all summer
Atalanta aren’t the only team interested in him though, with the likes of West Ham, Juventus, and Brighton monitoring him.
“That’s low, they’re right to reject that,” Hutton said to Football Insider regarding Atalanta’s £14million offer.
“Atletico Madrid got knocked back in January for £20million, so what would be the reason for them to accept £14m at this moment in time?”
“They’ll be holding out for a lot more, high 20s.
“When you look at his numbers and what he’s done last season, again he’s only about 23 years of age, he’s only going to get better when he plays in stronger leagues.
“This is going to rumble on for a number of weeks, now until the end of the window.
“There’ll be a lot of suitors out there just kind of seeing how the land lies at this moment in time, but I expect it to be a lot more than that. If they get that kind of high 20s bid he will be off”
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