Matt O'Riley Celtic transfer latest as AS Roma join race with huge caveat

AS Roma are the latest club to join the race for Matt O'Riley, according to a report.

The Celtic ace is widely expected to move on this summer after being a standout for the past two seasons. Atletico Madrid had an offer of around £20million knocked back in January and it remains to be seen if the Spanish giants will return with another bid for the Denmark midfielder this summer.

But plenty of other clubs are interested. Sky Sports is reporting that Serie A side Roma are the latest but must first offload one of their own players in order to fund the transfer which would more than likely be a record-breaking sale for a Scottish side, smashing deals taking Kieran Tierney to Arsenal and Jota to Al-Ittihad.

The report also claims that an unnamed German side, but one who qualified for next season's Champions League, are in the race having registered their interest along with two English Premier League clubs. Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham and Southampton are among those to have been linked in the past.

Former Celts boss Neil Lennon recently said O'Riley's exit was inevitable. He explained: “There’s surgery to be done at Celtic. It’s obvious they need a goalkeeper. They need two centre-halves to compete in Europe - they need another Cameron Carter-Vickers type with speed and power.

“They need a number six and they need strikers. I’d do something to get Adam Idah, if he's £4-5m. He has room for improvement, even though he’s improved already. He scored again for Ireland the other night with a great header. He’s young enough and there’s huge potential. But I think they’ll lose O’Riley - there’s an inevitability about that, so he’ll need replacing."