Matt O’Riley was Celtic’s star man during the 2023/24 campiagn - and it’s no surprise he bagged a hat-trick of accolades at the end of season awards.
The Denmark internationalist was voted the club’s Young Player of the Year, Player of the Year, and Players’ Player of the Year after helping his team win the Scottish Cup and Scottish Premiership last time out.
That recognition comes off the back of the 23-year-old scoring a 19 times while providing a further 18 assists during the past 12 months.
One player who he's formed a strong relationship with is Kyogo Furuhashi. The Japanese striker also bagged 19 goals from his 53 appearances - and several of them were from linking-up with O'Riley.
And that ability to help each other is not one O'Riley takes for granted as he opened up on their on-field bond.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Celtic View, the Hoops midfielder said: "It’s very good, both on and off the pitch, I find him really easy to play with because his movement is so good.
“I think that he trusts that I’m always going to look to play in the ball, because I try to look forward as much as possible, so right from my first season here right up to now, we’ve had a really good relationship.
“I don’t know what the number is, but I’m sure a lot of my assists have come for him.”
O'Riley, who was unfortunate to be committed from Denmark's squad at Euro 2024, takes immense pride in his goals and assists, particular the ones that have arrived in the Champions League.
“I like my Champions League ones just purely because every assist was probably one of my best assists in terms of my whole career," he explained.
“That’s just pretty cool to have all of your assists in the same campaign being at a high level. And also just when you play at that level you can show that you can perform at a high level.”
When it comes to finding the net himself, he was keen to highlight his title-winning double against Kilmarnock on May 25, by adding:
“That was cool – it was a nice way to finish off the league. That was the best we’ve played, and to do it on astro as well, it’s not actually that easy.
“So that was a really fun night and, for me personally, that was the night where everything kind of sunk in in terms of the league.
“Because it was a very long season and there were definitely a lot of ups and downs for all of us, and just getting over the line in that manner was really nice.”
