Celtic player told to stay amid summer exit rumours

It will be very interesting to see how the Celtic squad looks come next season. The majority of the current crop of players were signed during the time of Ange Postecoglou as the manager of the club. He is no longer in the Parkhead hot seat though, having left for Tottenham Hotspur, just days after winning the treble with the Hoops.

Instead, it is Brendan Rodgers who will be the manager of the club next season. The Northern Irishman will surely come in with his own idea of how to get the best out of this team.

That might be bad news for some starters, while a few fringe players might get a chance to return to the first-team fold. It remains to be seen how things play out.

One player who has been heavily linked with a move away from Celtic for some time now is Matt O’Riley. But he has been told to stay a year longer, in order to work with Rodgers.

Celtic player told to stay amid summer exit rumours

As reported by Football Insider, Frank McAvennie said:

"“Brendan is a world renowned coach, he is a coach that people want to play for.“I would imagine that all the players at Celtic will want to be coached by him.“It is completely different from Ange but he is a good coach and he will get these boys playing better.“O’Riley never set the world on fire when he was in England and he would go down there a better player. But I would give myself a year under Brendan.“"

O’Riley was one of the best signings of the Postecoglou Era. He was brought in from League One side, MK Dons.

It goes without saying that expectations were not very high, even though most recognised that he was a very talented player. It was viewed as a project signing at best, that might work out in the long term.

Instead, O’Riley would establish himself as a starter from the get go. And he has been exceptional in a Celtic shirt till now. According to stats from Transfermarkt, he has scored 8 goals and provided 16 assists in 72 appearances for the club while playing 4518 minutes of football in total.

Thus, it goes without saying that O’Riley is key to this Celtic side. And he is the type of player who a manager like Rodgers could improve further.