Rodgers says he’s far from wishing O’Riley out the door but senses he might be at a point in his career where he fancies a change.
Brendan Rodgers admits he doesn’t know if star man Matt O’Riley will commit to signing a new Celtic contract.
O’Riley is in talks with club bosses about putting pen to paper on a bumper extension following a raft of new deals for the likes of skipper Callum McGregor, strikers Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda and winger Liel Abada. Anthony Ralston and Stephen Welsh have also signed up with midfielder Reo Hatate on the verge of becoming the latest stalwart to secure his long term future in Glasgow’s east end.
Rodgers is desperate for O’Riley to follow suit and the manager revealed he played a key role in booting out a £10m bid for the Danish international from Leeds United during the summer transfer window. But, when asked if he planned on making O’Riley a cornerstone of his team for years to come the Parkhead boss said: “I would love to – but we have been here before haven’t we? This is the beauty of me coming back.
“The experience tells me when players are at a certain point. He is in his third year now. I said to him in pre-season, ‘I can make you a better player and improve you as a player’. But naturally what happens at Celtic is that you improve and develop and then, you know….
“I am not wishing him out the door of course. But he is 22 years of age. Funny enough I was talking to Kasper Hjulmund, the Danish national manager, about him the other day. I was giving a report on him and I know Kasper well from dealing with the Danish players I had at Leicester – we have a good relationship.
“I was telling him that from the outside Matt is totally different from when you are inside working with him. So I just think he needs to keep doing what he is doing.
“Of course we want to keep him here, we would love to keep him here, and I believe that he still has a lot of development to do here. But he is showing some great signs. He has a wonderful attitude to the game, he is ambitious – but ambitious for Celtic as well as himself.
“He is investing his time in development. He could have left here. With the greatest respect he could have earned significantly more money by leaving. But that is not everything for him.”
Leeds hoped to land O’Riley in the last few days of the transfer window after tabling a whopping offer. But Rodgers remained adamant in discussions with chief executive Michael Nicholson that the sale could not go through. And he believes O’Riley will eventually be sold for an even greater sum.
He said: “Yeah, it was an open conversation and that’s what I’ve always had here with Michael and the guys. I didn’t think we could afford to lose another starter and the club were very supportive of that. They were great.
“We had obviously lost Starfelt and lost Jota and we knew Cameron Carter-Vickers was going to be out for a while. I didn’t feel we could lose another one. But, of course, that’s all on the player as well because if the player really wants to move and pushes for it, then I’m also a believer that if he doesn’t want to be here then don’t be here.
“I’ve got experience of that where you think you can keep them for another year but they are not the same player if they really, really want to go. I never got that feeling at all from Matt.
“He knows that I’m investing in him to help him become better. He still knows he’s got a bit to improve and hopefully this part of the season is confirmation for him that I can still improve him as a player and develop him. Certainly his value will increase in 12 months’ time.”