Matt O’Riley has suggested he may consider moving on from Brighton this summer, a situation that could benefit Celtic financially…
The former Hoops midfielder spent the opening months of the season on loan in France at Marseille, where he made 25 appearances, scoring once, before being brought back in January.
O’Riley’s involvement at Brighton has been minimal
However, since returning to Brighton, Matt O’Riley’s involvement has been minimal, with only a few outings, leaving uncertainty surrounding his role going forward.
If Brighton decide to sell, Celtic stand to gain a percentage of any profit from the deal due to a clause included in his transfer agreement.
‘I’m not sure. That’s the honest answer,’ Matt O’Riley
Speaking via The Brighton Base, O’Riley said: “Honestly, right now, I’m not sure. That’s the honest answer. I’ve always said this. I love being here at Brighton. I love what the club stands for, the values, all the stuff I do with the foundation.”
“I have a lot of good relationships with everyone at the club, but, at the same time, as a player, you naturally want to play. We train every day to improve ourselves, of course, but you also train to make an impact for your team on a match day.”
‘We’ll see how the rest of the season pans out,’ Matt O’Riley
“We’ll see how the rest of the season pans out, and, you know, I’d like to hope I’d be involved in some of the games going to the end of the season, but regardless, end of the season, I think I’ll have a bit more clarity on kind of where I stand and how that looks going into the summer.”
Responding to a question about his recall from Marseille, the ex-Celtic fan favourite said: “That happened very quickly as well. From what I heard, Brighton wanted me back, they were keen to have me back and said that I’d be in the picture, in the squad, fighting to play, etc.”
“So naturally, at that point, Marseille was in a little bit of a tough spot, I would say, within the club. We weren’t sure what was happening with the manager [Roberto De Zerbi, now at Tottenham] at the time, and things were a little bit up in the air. So I feel like for me, maybe that was the best thing I could do.”
Any financial windfall that will come Celtic’s way by Matt O’Riley moving on from Brighton this summer is likely to be small as previous reports indicated that the Premier League club were looking to recoup the £25m that they paid to Celtic for the Denmark international midfielder. Perhaps a £30m fee would be the market worth for O’Riley this summer, which should net Celtic around £500k from their sell-on clause.
Conor Spence
