From growing pains to shining for the Hoops
Former Celtic hero Peter Grant has loved watching protege Matt O’riley shine since his £1.5 million move to his former club from MK Dons in January – but he admits he thought the 21-year-old would struggle to play at the highest level.
Grant saw the teenager on a daily basis while he was the youth development coach at Fulham and he feared that the physical problems he suffered at that time might put an end to his promising career.
“I worked with Matt when he was a young kid and you knew that there was a player in there but the issue he had then was his fitness levels, which were due to a problem with his back.
“He always knew that he had a real talent but the worry was whether or not his body would back him up. He went through a period where he grew very quickly – he seemed to stretch overnight – and that gave him an awkward gait.
“It was a question of whether he would be able to adapt after that. But I’m delighted that he’s now showing what he can do.
“Even as a kid, he always had a wand of a left foot but his growing problems were holding him back.
“He missed pre-season training one year as a result and, even as a young man, you need to get that in the bank. People often say that youth players play too many games but Matt probably wasn’t playing enough. Which is why it’s great for me now to see him getting close to opponents and then just nicking the ball off them.
“When he was at Fulham he wasn’ t physically capable of doing that but, through sheer hard work and belief, he’s turned things around.
“There was never any doubting his skill, however.
“I put him in the Under23 team at Fulham when he was only 16 and he didn’t look out of place.”
Grant made 470 appearances for his boyhood heroes and he’s delighted to see O’riley wearing the Hoops with distinction.
“He has a good football brain and he sees all the pictures,” he claimed. “Whenever he receives the ball, he knows where his team- mates and his opponents are, which helps him to move it on quickly.
“He makes the simple passes – which are the hardest ones to make – and he’s also hard for other players to close down because, by the time they’re on top of him, he’s moved the ball on.
“Matt backed himself when he turned down a new three-year contract at Fulham in the summer of 2020 because he couldn’t see a pathway into the first team.
“He trained with MK Dons and, six months later, they paid Fulham a development fee to sign him. It was great to see him playing for them every week but it’s been even better seeing him make an impact at Parkhead.”