Matt O'Riley

ANGE POSTECOGLOU has brought big success to Celtic on the back of making sure the small parts run by themselves.

Matt O’Riley arrived at Parkhead from MK Dons in January and reckons it took him just THREE days to feel like he’d been there his whole life.




Team-mates like Carl Starfelt, Anthony Ralston and Josip Juranovic have quickly become among the closest friends has.

While deep chats with Joe Hart have left him with the greatest respect for a guy who has achieved so much yet remains more humble than his public perception would lead you to believe.

But O’Riley reckons that’s down to a culture created by Postecoglou which sees the Australian barely say anything to his players because he has everything running by itself.

It’s worked well so far with the Hoops lifting the Premiership title and Premier Sports Cup in Postecoglou’s first season at the helm.




O’Riley spent time training with the Danish senior squad earlier this month and noticed the difference in style between their gaffer Kasper Hjulmand and Postecoglou.

Both have proved successful in their own ways and O’Riley, 21, told SunSport: “I’ve only met Kasper once or twice so I can’t say that much in depth about him. But he seems very approachable. He came up to me and asked me how I was doing and how he was happy to see me training well at this level.

“Sometimes it’s nice to hear those kinds of things. I have a relationship with Ange where we do speak but it’s not frequent.

“It’s more of a respect and I’m here to do my job kind of thing. But I think they’re very good coaches, just in different ways.




When Ange speaks you listen. Everybody does, regardless of whoever you are.

“Regardless of how old or young you are, when he says something you stop what you’re doing. That’s what he’s really good at.

“He just commands respect from everyone. He does have a joke around at times and it’s nice to see him when he does bring that side out.

“It just shows sometimes we can just breathe! As much as I say Ange doesn’t speak to people that much, he’s sort of got a culture at Celtic where us as players and the rest of the staff have it very easy to speak to each other.






He’s installed that structure within so he overviews the whole thing and makes sure it’s ticking as it should.

“If it doesn’t do that then he’s always very quick to rectify it, which is what makes him very good.

“It separates us from quite a few others because he’s very switched on.

“We always say as players depending on the game or the situation or the time, he always seems to say the things you want to hear.




He says it at the right time and doesn’t get very emotional which, nowadays, is a very important factor.

“If you get very emotional all your messages can get completely lost in translation and players on the pitch might feel a bit anxious.

“He always comes from a very level-headed perspective and I think that’s really important.

“So as a player when you’re out there you know exactly what you need to do, where you need to go and you also know he’s always going to have your back.




I genuinely felt at home within three days. Genuinely.

“The first day you’re a bit nervous but I’d already started my first game after something like two days.

“That helps, when you’re thrown into the event and if you do well you earn respect from other people.

“That’s kind of what happened and from then on it’s been very easy to settle and make friends.




I’ve already genuinely got a few of my best mates at the club, which is pretty cool.

“I hang around with Carl, Anthony Ralston, Josip. But then again I honestly probably hang out with half the team, which shows enough about our culture.

“There are guys like Liel Abada and everyone is very approachable.

“Even if we have a rare night out together as a team, everyone is there and you can speak to anyone, which I think is quite unique in this day and age.

“There’s usually quite a lot of cliques but at Celtic I feel like I could be sat at a dinner table with any of them and have a good time, which is cool.




I think that translates onto the pitch as well. You see how we gel so nicely. Throughout most games, that’s the way we are off the pitch as well.

“We’re very open and relaxed. Even people like Callum McGregor, who from the outside might have this persona of being the captain and leader, is a very nice guy.”

As for ex-England and Manchester City No 1 Hart, who has rebuilt his career with the Hoops and solved their goalkeeping problem, O’Riley added: “Joe is someone I can’t speak highly enough about.

“He’s the most level-headed guy I’ve met. He’s achieved the craziest things, he’s got this huge pedigree, he’s 34 but regardless of your age he’ll speak to you like you’re just a human being.




I’ve had numerous chats with him which have not been football-related but down-to-earth, deep talks and I think it’s cool you can do that with someone like Joe.

“Everyone is in it together which is really important for success.”

 

He only has 4 years left on his deal. We need to extend that by another 5 years

 

He's gonna explode next season. Easily capable of 15+ goals

 

Dressing room sounds great

 

Ange really is an amazing manager

 

I reckon females have a wummingly type thing that's maybe not so visible but maybe a bit more damp

 

Our midfield area is * stacked with talent.

McGregor
Hatate
Turnbull
O'Riley
Ideguchi
Maybe a new CDM.
And a filler to replace the numbers lost in Bitton and Rogic.

It's genuinely gonna be tough to give all that talent the game time they all deserve.

 

Stacked yet still missing 1 big * to help control the game better.

 

Just scored against Turkey

 

Great wee finish..

Expecting to see loads more of that next season off the big sort..

 

One of the great things about O'Riley off the pitch, apart from his dreamy eyes, is that he tends to avoid the usual footballer clichés. Ask him a straight question and you'll get a straight answer. Most footballers if asked what a manager is like behind the scenes or what a dressing room is like, will give you a vague, "the manager's a good guy/the dressing room's great/ everybody gets along well" type response, which doesn't really say much. Ask O'Riley though, and he'll sit you down by the fire, pop on the kettle and regale you with detailed anecdotes of everything that has happened over the past 32 weeks

 

Yeah I've noticed this too. His personality is very uncharacteristic of a typical footballer. His mannerisms are proper awkward, just like his dancing

 

Hes seems really shy and quite awkward

 

He must've been a fat ugly * when he was wee or that..

 

MATT O’RILEY quickly felt right at home after joining Celtic.

But he’s put part of that down to the fact his parents moved HOUSE to support him.



O’Riley settled seamlessly into life at Parkhead following his move from MK Dons back in January.




At the same time folks Dom and Gitte decided to up sticks from where they were living in London to be with their boy in Glasgow.

The pair — who work for themselves in IT — have always been huge supporters of their only child as he’s travelled on his footballing journey and wanted to get to as many of his games as they could.

So, even before O’Riley had chosen the Hoops as his next destination, the trio had talked about them getting a pad wherever he went next



Now they stay just a few streets away in the West End and love life in their new surroundings as much as he does




O’Riley, 21, said: “My parents are the two who have been very heavily involved in my football career.

“They’re probably involved more so than quite a lot of other parents and it might be because I’m an only child. That might make a difference.

“They’ve moved up to Glasgow and live in the city. Fortunately we don’t live together because that would be intense!



But they’re always around. We spoke about it beforehand, before I moved to Celtic.


I’m not someone who’s going to say I didn’t want them there. I think it’s cool they wanted to come.

“I live in the West End and they live on the other side of it. It’s enough to let me breathe but at the same time we can see each other when we need to and they can come to all the games and enjoy themselves as well.

“That’s made it a little bit easier for me to settle in as well. They were both very together on moving.

“They both wanted to watch the football games. Living in London, with the amount of games Celtic have, it would be hard to continually travel.




They’d already sold their house a couple of years before I joined Celtic so they were at the stage where they were quite open to change.

“So I think it was good for them to be able to experience something new as well.”

O’Riley’s mum and dad don’t just show their backing from the stands.
They continue to play an active role in his development and share a desire to help their son have every edge possible.

He said: “They’ve helped me with a lot of stuff off the pitch since I was a very young age




If something not nice had to be said or we might have to deal with an agent, my dad would be involved in stuff like that. But it was always all from a good place.

“With my mum it might have been some health stuff like supplements and things like that.

“I was always quite strict and professional from a young age. From 15 or 16 I looked in the mirror and said I was going to do this properly. When my mum saw me like that she got on board. If I asked her if she’d mind looking at something she’d do it and do a bunch of research.

“I’d obviously ask people at the club I was at too. But from a young age I wasn’t that involved with the first team so we were trying to get ahead of the game as much as we could.




Even to this day if I need something the club might not be able to get access to she’ll try her best.

“It’s all revolved around helping me to perform to the best level, basically.

“Hopefully we can continue improving and they’ll always be a part of that, which is pretty cool.

“My mum does all sorts to be honest. I probably undersell what she does.






I don’t want it to sound like I rely on her but I also want to say she definitely helps with something if I need it.

“So we’re a close team and that’s been really helpful. It’s allowed me to settle wherever I’ve gone or wherever the challenge has been.”
O’Riley’s football-mad 83-year-old gran Lis also joined her grandson in Scotland earlier this year.

Normally she has to watch him play on streams from her home on the outskirts of Copenhagen.

But she was able to cheer him from the stands during her stay — then watched from the sidelines as O’Riley netted his first goal for Denmark’s Under-21s in Vejle last week.




He added: “My gran is in Denmark and came to the 21s games, including the one against Scotland.

“She was actually living in Glasgow with me for six or seven weeks at one stage.




She stayed at mine — it was just me and her in the apartment. She was able to go with my mum and dad to the Celtic games so she was happy about that.

“She’s 83 but she’s still very switched on. She knows what’s happening, which is cool. She’s a big football fan, probably mainly because of me being involved. It’s great to know I have her support like that.”

 

From MK Dons to Champions League in the space of a few months

 

Boy with a sensible head on his shoulders, would been nice if some of our own recent prospects were the same

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk