Celtic have sealed a brand new signing who may very well be their subsequent Matt O’Riley

The summer season switch window formally slammed shut on Thursday night after a number of months of incoming and outgoing enterprise for Celtic‘s first-team.

Martin O’Neill added ten new faces to his squad throughout the window, 5 of which had been signed completely, and he might be hoping that they’ll all have a big influence on the pitch this season.

A number of of the brand new signings have are available in as younger gamers who wish to take the subsequent steps of their respective careers, probably with the goal of creating the leap to certainly one of Europe’s main leagues sooner or later.

The Hoops have been an awesome automobile for younger gamers to make use of to progress their careers in latest seasons, with Matt O’Riley standing out as top-of-the-line examples of their recruitment success.

How Matt O’Riley grew to become a star at Celtic

In January 2022, Celtic swooped to signal attacking midfielder Matt O’Riley from English League One aspect MK Dons for an preliminary charge of £1.5m to bolster Ange Postecoglou’s squad.

The left-footed star didn’t arrive at Parkhead because the completed article. He had proven promise, although, with a return of ten targets and 7 assists in 49 appearances in League One in his final 18 months with MK Dons.

O’Riley racked up 4 targets and three assists in 16 Scottish Premiership matches within the second half of the 2021/22 marketing campaign, earlier than regularly progressing throughout the next two seasons.

The Denmark worldwide actually hit his stride beneath Brendan Rodgers within the 2023/24 marketing campaign, which was when he was capable of mix common goalscoring with constant creativity.

He grew to become a star as a result of the Hoops supplied him with the platform to flex his attacking abilities in a dominant aspect that gained the title in every of these seasons.

That type led to him incomes a £25m transfer to Premier League aspect Brighton & Hove Albion, making him the membership’s joint-record sale alongside Jota and Kieran Tierney for a similar charge.

Celtic might have already signed their subsequent Matt O’Riley

Now, one of many membership’s ten summer season signings may very well be on his approach to turning into the subsequent model of O’Riley at Parkhead after becoming a member of as a younger playmaker.

Earlier this week, the Scottish giants formally confirmed the signing of Joel van den Berg from PSV for a charge of £3.5m to bolster the supervisor’s choices in the midst of the park.

The 19-year-old expertise has put pen to paper on a four-year contract at Parkhead and might provide cowl as each a central midfielder and as an attacking midfielder.

A multi-million pound charge for a participant of his age means that the Premiership champions consider that he has important potential, and his type within the Netherlands backs that up.

Van den Berg solely performed 5 occasions, beginning as soon as, within the Eredivisie for PSV’s first-team within the 2025/26 marketing campaign, and was solely an unused substitute for the senior aspect at first of this season.

Nonetheless, the £3.5m-rated expertise’s type for the reserve aspect within the second tier of Dutch soccer means that the potential is there for him to finally grow to be an O’Riley-esque star.

He had already proven indicators of development within the early phases of this season for PSV’s second group, with a greater minute per aim fee and extra key passes per recreation on common.

The Netherlands U19 captain ended his profession at PSV with 11 targets in 39 matches for his or her U21s group and 6 targets in 27 video games for the U18 aspect, exhibiting that he has the potential to supply a big risk as a goalscorer from a quantity ten place.

His key cross numbers within the Eerste Divisie, although, point out that the teen additionally has the standard to supply constant creativity as an attacking midfielder, which signifies that the Dutchman may pose a twin risk to defences as a scorer and a creator.

Due to this fact, van den Berg may go on to be Celtic’s subsequent model of O’Riley as a result of he has the potential to attain targets and create probabilities for his teammates frequently, and O’Neill will love him if he can try this persistently.

Nonetheless, he has but to show himself on a constant foundation at first-team stage and the subsequent step for him is to make use of this platform at Parkhead to showcase his high quality week-in-week-out within the Premiership.