Brighton are reportedly ready to smash the Scottish transfer record in their pursuit of Celtic star Matt O'Riley.
Last night it emerged Brighton had opened talks with Celtic over a possible summer swoop for the 23-year-old midfielder.
Atalanta have had three bids for O'Riley knocked back this summer but it's claimed Brighton could spend big to land the player. Similarly, Southampton had an approach thrown out.
Brendan Rodgers remains keen to keep the player at Celtic for the season ahead and insisted offers to this point have not been close to the valuation placed on the player.
It's thought Celtic will hold out for a record fee before any deal for O'Riley to leave the club is sanctioned.
Currently, the Scottish transfer record stands at £25m after Kieran Tierney joined Arsenal from Celtic back in 2019 and the same fee received for Jota in 2023.
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The Scottish Sun, though, state Brighton plan to place a bid worth £25m-plus for O'Riley this summer.
Further discussions between the club will reportedly be held in the coming days to attempt to thrash out a transfer agreement.
O'Riley played the full match against Kilmarnock in a 4-0 win in the Scottish Premiership opening weekend.
Rodgers said of transfer speculation surrounding O'Riley on Sunday: "We are quite calm on that. Yeah, there's been offers for him but nowhere near the valuation of the player himself.
"He's just continuing to work every day, and like I said, he understands where it's at.
"But if you see his performance level all the way through pre-season and here today, he's very focused on helping the team, very focused on improving as a player, and he knows he's in a great place to do that.
"Until that changes then we will continue to work with Matt to help improve his game."
