Brendan Rodgers has no worries about ‘happy’ Matt O’Riley leaving Celtic after shock La Liga leaders Girona were the latest club to have been credited with an interest in the midfielder.
The Celtic manager hasn’t felt it necessary to speak to the 23-year-old about the transfer speculation surrounding him after witnessing how he dealt with a similar scenario in the summer, with the fact he didn’t agitate for a move when there were concrete options telling him everything he needs to know about O’Riley’s commitment to the club.
And Rodgers is excited to see what the next stage for O’Riley might be at Celtic as he develops leadership skills to go along with his undoubted technical ability.
“I think we saw that in the summer when there was clearly interest and he could have left,” Rodgers said.
READ MORE: Reo Hatate a water carrier? Japan's use of Celtic players continues to perplex
“But we didn’t want to sell for one and, two, he was very happy here.
“So, yeah, he is a great guy to have around and a really good teammate. I could see him grow as a leader as well, within the team. He is really enjoying his football.
“It’s all speculation and we all know the game, we know how it works. My only focus is on the players while they are here each day to try to make them better. Anything other than that is only ever gossip or speculation unless something comes to me. Otherwise there is nothing for me to speak about.
“In terms of form, quality, professionalism, age, everything, Matt has been top class in my time here.
“It’s great to see a young player develop – but he deserves it because he puts so much into his game. Off the pitch he prepares himself well and that gives him the confidence. He then works beside that, and you see his success on the pitch.
“He is such a graceful player, how he gets about, and he is at that age where that hunger and mentality is there to get better and improve.”
Rodgers was delighted to finally secure his first signing of the transfer window this week in winger Nick Kuhn, and he is now setting his sights on bringing in a striker to help share the load with Kyogo Furuhashi.
“It’s an area we have to look at, we can’t ignore it,” he said.
“It’s the balance between bringing someone in to challenge while acknowledging that’s a difficult sell to someone when Kyogo has been fantastic here. Or is it a young player who comes in with potential to improve and get better?
“Those are the things that you think about, because it really is only for a short period of time that those guys will be missing [at the African Cup of Nations and the Asian Cup]. But, yeah, it’s all about availability.
“It’s also one that we have been looking at for a period of time and it would have really changed if Kyogo had gone away with Japan. That was our thinking process, that we would actually be left with no one.
READ MORE: Now is not the time for Celtic to cash in on Carter-Vickers
“Him being here for virtually one game a week for a number of weeks changes the dynamic.
“It’s about getting the right players in. You can easily bring players in. But sometimes it takes a bit of time and patience. We’ve got the winger we wanted and there are some other positions we want to improve.
“If the players are available and we can do a deal, then great. If not, we’ll move on to the summer.
“It will only be if the right players are not available.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here