{"id":580256,"date":"2021-01-24T06:17:46","date_gmt":"2021-01-24T11:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=580256"},"modified":"2021-01-24T06:17:46","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T11:17:46","slug":"matt-oriley-completes-move-mk-dons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/24\/matt-oriley-completes-move-mk-dons\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt O&#8217;Riley Completes Move to Milton Keynes Dons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>League One side <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/23\/andrew-fisher-signs-new-mk-dons-contract\/\" target=\"_self\">Milton Keynes Dons<\/a> have completed the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/football-transfer-news\/\" target=\"_self\">signing<\/a> of former <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/22\/ligue-1-side-nice-enquire-about-fulham-midfielder-jean-michael-seri\/\" target=\"_self\">Fulham<\/a> midfielder Matt O&#8217;Riley. The 20-year-old left the Cottagers last summer and has been training with Russell Martin&#8217;s side since.<\/p>\n<p>As an out-of-contract U24 player, Fulham are due a compensation fee, and a settlement between the two clubs has been agreed.<\/p>\n<h2>MK Dons Sign Former Fulham Midfielder Matt O&#8217;Riley<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MKDons?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MKDons<\/a> have completed the signing of former Fulham midfielder Matt O\u2019Riley \u270d\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>Full story \ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1Fc8io7PJy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/1Fc8io7PJy<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Agym4Bm3A1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Agym4Bm3A1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MK Dons (@MKDonsFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MKDonsFC\/status\/1353297803104186370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>What Was Said?<\/h3>\n<p>O&#8217;Riley told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mkdons.com\/news\/2021\/january\/oriley-makes-mk-dons-move\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">club website<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019ve been here training with the boys for six months now and I\u2019ve loved every minute.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI haven\u2019t played a game in quite a while but I have been training here for quite a while so I\u2019m feeling sharp and ready to go. Hopefully I can get some minutes soon and start making an impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very excited to get going, especially in this team. This is my ideal style of football and I hope to come in and bring goals and assists and be as creative as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dons boss Martin added: \u201cMatt has been training with us for a long time now but we all recognised, very quickly, what a gifted footballer he is and why he\u2019s been wanted by some big clubs over the last few years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s come to a point in his career where he just wants to play football, but he\u2019s also been willing to wait and hold out for a move here, which is an incredible statement of intent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a brilliant and important signing for us. He\u2019s certainly one for the long term but he can also help us in the short term because he\u2019s been training with us and understands how we want to play.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>O&#8217;Riley&#8217;s Career<\/h3>\n<p>Despite not having much senior experience, O&#8217;Riley has been highly sought-after in previous years while in the youth ranks at Fulham.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, as a 16-year-old, he became the club&#8217;s youngest ever scorer at U23 level, and he made his debut for the Cottagers in a 2-0 EFL cup win against Wycombe Wanderers in the same year.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, O&#8217;Riley rejected a new three-year deal with the first team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11681\/12010655\/fulham-youngster-matt-oriley-to-leave-club-amid-championship-dutch-and-belgian-interest\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">amid interest<\/a> from the Championship as well as clubs in the Netherlands and Belgium.<\/p>\n<p>For O&#8217;Riley to have still been without a club going into January is a surprise, and it&#8217;s perhaps even more so that it was a mid-table League One club that eventually secured his signature.<\/p>\n<p>He has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hitc.com\/en-gb\/2020\/12\/11\/ex-fulham-wonderkid-monitored-by-dortmund-2019-is-somehow-still-a-free-agent\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">previously been scouted<\/a> by some of the biggest clubs in Europe, including Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool and Manchester City.<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Riley becomes the fifth player to join the Dons in this window after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/13\/milton-keynes-dons-sign-charlie-brown\/\" target=\"_self\">Charlie Brown<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/08\/milton-keynes-dons-sign-ethan-laird\/\" target=\"_self\">Ethan Laird<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/22\/mk-dons-harry-darling-cambridge-united\/\" target=\"_self\">Harry Darling<\/a> and the permanent acquisition of loanee <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/18\/warren-ohora-signs-permanent-milton-keynes-dons\/\" target=\"_self\">Warren O&#8217;Hora<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"vUDGFEotRVNtIr2a6FY1fQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/999398772\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'vUDGFEotRVNtIr2a6FY1fQ',sig:'dzjP7-Rqe7zC5rFbboQVsFwqhvLI2XaJ2lcCPYc-La4=',w:'594px',h:'434px',items:'999398772',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>League One side Milton Keynes Dons have completed the signing of former Fulham midfielder Matt O&#8217;Riley. The 20-year-old left the Cottagers last summer and has been training with Russell Martin&#8217;s side since. As an out-of-contract U24 player, Fulham are due a compensation fee, and a settlement between the two clubs has been agreed. MK Dons [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1144,"featured_media":580257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,2511,34,30,28],"tags":[168,1297,573,188,5316,503,136],"class_list":["post-580256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-fulham","category-league12","category-news","category-transfers","tag-efl","tag-football-transfer-news","tag-fulham","tag-league-one","tag-matt-oriley","tag-milton-keynes-dons","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}