West Ham United in hunt to sign Celtic star Matt O’Riley, Aston Villa update also shared – Sky Sports
West Ham are keeping tabs on Matt O’Riley with other clubs across Europe also showing an interest in the Celtic star, according to Sky Sports.
The online news outlet reported [22 December] that the Hammers are joined by Inter, Aston Villa, PSV Eindhoven and Atletico Madrid, with it expected that a club-record fee of over £35million would be needed to tempt Celtic into selling.
It is understood, however, that Inter are preparing an initial six-month loan deal until the end of the month with an option-to-buy clause included for the summer, despite the London club’s long-term examination of the player.
A revelation in midfield
With such a big fee being requested for the 23-year-old, it is highly unlikely that the Hammers can swoop in for the player’s services in January before Inter snap him up on a loan deal.
However, it would be a truly incredible signing if they can pull it off. As a box-to-box midfielder, O’Riley has nine goals and eight assists in 24 appearances so far this season, including three assists across Celtic’s Champions League group stage matches.
Chris Sutton took to Twitter to praise the midfielder following Celtic’s 4-1 victory over Hearts in October, labelling O’Riley as “phenomenal”, having opened the scoring after four minutes.
The Denmark international committed his future at Hampden Park until 2027 when he signed a new contract, with a £10million bid from Leeds United turned down in the summer.
There is no doubt that O’Riley is far too good for the Championship, and could be a brilliant fit for David Moyes’ West Ham squad. With Tomas Soucek currently occupying the attacking midfield spot in the team, the midfielder could offer much more going forward despite the Czech’s recent goals.
O’Riley has even been capped by his national team, which is extremely impressive with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Mathias Jensen and Thomas Delaney making up Denmark’s midfield.
It could only be a matter of time until O’Reilly makes a move to the Premier League. West Ham need to get ahead of the curve to beat their rivals to the transfer.
In other West Ham news, Simon Jordan has hit back at Jim White over David Sullivan questions.