Matt O’Riley: Celtic likely to earn record fee as club consider life without midfielder

O’Riley’s statistics are hugely impressive.

Since arriving at Celtic, he has provided more assists than anyone in the Scottish Premiership, his 29 being six more than Rangers captain James Tavernier.

O’Riley ranks third when combining goals and assists, his 54 involvements only two behind Heart of Midlothian striker Lawrence Shankland and seven adrift of Tavernier, king of Rangers penalties.

O’Riley (217) is second only to Tavernier (275) and well ahead of the next best, Kilmarnock winger Danny Armstrong (173) in terms of chances created – and only 10 behind the Rangers man when you only count those from open play.

As for touches in the box, O’Riley outshines any Premiership player, his 555 being more than Shankland’s 498 and well ahead of team-mate Daizen Maeda and Bojan Miovski, the striker sold this month by Aberdeen to Girona.

O’Riley is also fourth best for successful crosses behind Tavernier, Armstrong and former Rangers left-back Borna Barisic – and his 25 goals over the last two years is only bettered by four strikers and that man Tavernier.

Those steadily improving numbers mean O’Riley has possibly now overtaken captain Callum McGregor and Japan’s Reo Hatate in terms of importance to Celtic.

The trio have been central to a scintillating start to this season for Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Acknowledging their role last week, the manager said: “In my history as a coach, the dynamic midfield three is always important.

“It’s never about one player, it’s always about the three. And I think that it was probably only into the latter stages of last season that those three came together.

“And I think you’ve seen the flow and the dynamism and how it all makes the team function.”

Rodgers has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to lose O’Riley, while praising the player’s “phenomenal mentality” in blocking out the speculation.

Seeking to bolster his squad ahead of the Champions League, Rodgers is not reliant on funds from any sale of O’Riley.

“I still think we need another player in that position,” he said. “If he was to go, we’d need two more.”

Rodgers has said he doubts whether he could “replace like-for-like” and Celtic would not pay such “big money” on one player.

It looks increasingly likely that it will take an offer north of the club’s £25m record sales for both Kieran Tierney and Jota to prise O’Riley away.