BREAKING NEWS:Brendan Rodgers announce the departure of Matt O’Riley few minutes ago..

BREAKING NEWS:Brendan Rodgers announce the departure of Matt O’Riley few minutes ago..

Celtic star Matt O’Riley sent a strong transfer message in the early hours as he continues to be linked with a move to Liverpool. The Reds have been credited with an interest in signing the 23-year-old in recent days, who looks increasingly likely to leave the Scottish Premiership club this summer.

 

Reports in recent days have credited Liverpool with an interest in signing O’Riley, but they are not the only club in the running. Serie A outfit Atalanta are also reportedly interested in his signature and have already been reported as having bids rejected for the midfielder.

Sky Sports recently reported that Celtic rejected a third bid worth more than £15 million from Atalanta for O’Riley. It remains to be seen what valuation the Scottish club have on the midfielder’s signature.

Celtic faced Chelsea on Saturday night in a pre-season friendly and claimed a 4-1 victory over the Premier League outfit. O’Riley opened the scoring at the Notre Dame Stadium in Indiana, with Kyogo Furuhashi, Luis Palma and Michael Johnston also on the score sheet.

 

O’Riley’s goal came courtesy of a well-worked move by Celtic, where the ball eventually found the Denmark international in space in the penalty area. The midfielder placed his effort past Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and went on to play a key role in helping Celtic claim the emphatic victory.

Despite the fixture being a pre-season friendly, O’Riley’s performance may have sent a message to reportedly interested clubs, including Liverpool. O’Riley scored 18 goals with 19 assists from midfield for Celtic last season, which has led to increased speculation about his future this summer.

It was earlier this week following Celtic’s win over Man City that Brendan Rodgers was asked about O’Riley’s future and the reports of clubs being interested in prising him away from Glasgow.

 

“We’re all quite relaxed about it [O’Riley’s future],” he said. “Every player has a value but we see him as a really important player, and while he’s here, we’ll continue to develop him and improve.

 

“There’s no update. We’re fairly relaxed, you saw him in the game [vs Man City] the other night.”