The REAL reason behind Kelechi Iheanacho’s move to Bursaspor, and it’s not the ‘£47k wage demand’ lies the Celtic board fed to their ‘media partners’…

Another day, another Celtic shambles.

These days, this club doesn’t negotiate the modern footballing world, Celtic shambles through it.

I must give credit to John Hughes (Yogi Jnr.) for his inference to our board as the ‘Axis of Feeble’.

I have long been looking for a title for them, and you John, are bang on the money with this one.

Essentially begging to come back for negligible money. A game changer. A title winner. Yet it’s beyond our axis of feeble.
I look forward to our club signing. I mean, I fully expect him to have a club foot. Maybe two. https://t.co/Noftjrjpna

— John Hughes (@yogijunior3) July 18, 2026

Feeble, shambolic, farcical, pathetic, mediocre, these words bring all of the cultural and emotional associations we have with Celtic under this board to mind.

I’m sure there are many more we could think of, but that’s not what I want to focus on today.

Today, I want to focus on the utter lies our club fed to their ‘media partners’ about Kelechi Iheanacho’s ‘supposed wage demands’.

When you want to create a plausible lie, you want to create a falsehood structured to sound completely reasonable, believable, and consistent with all known facts.

Put simply, the ultimate goal of any lie is for it to be believed.

In order to achieve that, it has to be, well…..believable.

It seems the creation of plausible, or believable lies, is even beyond the capability of our ‘world class’ Celtic board.

If they aspire to be ‘world class’ in everything they do, then surely that should apply to the creation of a falsehood to mislead a pesky and overtly inquisitive fanbase?

Surely?

It must really irk them that we have a fanbase that scrutinises their every move.

To that end, you would think they’d manage to knock this lying thing on the head, wouldn’t you?

They do enough of it.

So you’d think they’d be masters at it at this stage?

Then again, when you’re on your 10th transfer window as CEO, one would think you might start to get the hang of it at the 10th attempt?

Not so with Michael Nicholson.

Which brings me back to the Kelechi Iheanacho shambles.

Let’s start with the truth on that particular subject.

I’m not going to profess to know what Iheanacho and his agent sought in terms of wages from Celtic.

As things stand, we know he was being offered a paltry £12k per week, rising to £17k per week with bonuses and add ons.

The reality is that the wage offer from Celtic was not the sticking point in these negotiations, the contract length was.

You don’t have to be an intrepid journalistic sleuth to figure this out either.

But firstly, let’s focus on the lies from the Celtic hierarchy on Iheanacho’s supposed wage demands.

The club’s selected ‘media partners‘ ran with the story that Iheanacho and his agent were demanding wages of £47k per week.

In fact, Michael Gannon of the Record rounded it up to £50k per week.

Stories then later emerged that Iheanacho was being offered £47k per week by second tier Turkish side Bursaspor.

I and many others in fan media moved quickly to expose this claim for the bullshit that it is.

If Iheanacho was offered that kind of money, it would make him the not just the top earner at Bursaspor, but also the top earner in TFF 2. Lig.

Bursaspor are a club that endured a spectacular fall from grace in the last decade or so.

Spiraling debts and poor administration resulted in huge turmoil at the club in recent years.

Once a regular in Turkey’s top flight, after relegation from the Süper Lig at the end of the 2018/19 season, they had plummeted all the way down Turkey’s third tier by 2024.

The club has achieved back to back promotions since then, which has given them the platform to now push for promotion back to the Süper Lig from TFF 2. Lig.

They are not, by any stretch of the imagination, a wealthy club.

Nor are they in a position to offer the kind of wages Gannon and quite a few other intrepid stenographers stated they could.

A little bit of research online tells you exactly what they are capable of offering.

See the below X post:

Bursaspor up to their eyes in debt. Their top three players earn as follows…

Emir Kaan Gültekin: £9,800 per week
Halil Akbunar: £4,900 per week
Rahmetullah Berişbek: £4,900 per week

… yet we're to believe they are paying Iheanacho £47,000 per week? More Celtic board lies.

— Kat🍀CELTIC FC 🦊🦌🐕🐎🐈🐘🦁 ANIMALS HAVE RIGHTS (@LiveLoveCeltic) July 18, 2026

If the board came back and said he was demanding somewhere between £25 to £30k per week, then that – at least – would sound plausible.

Whoever came up with the £47k figure clearly didn’t anticipate that it could be disproved so easily.

There is no way Bursaspor offered Kelechi Iheanacho wages like that.

They are not capable of doing so.

It’s that simple.

In addition to that, we are then expected to believe that Iheanacho and his agent demanded the kind of wages that would make him one of the top earners in the Scottish game?

Really?

So, if Celtic offered him we say, max £17k per week, he came back with a demand of a £30k increase on that?

On what grounds?

Kelechi Iheanacho was instrumental in helping us achieve an unlikely League and Cup double.

But even he is smart enough to know he didn’t do enough to become one of the top earners at the club.

His fitness issues alone dicatate that much.

He’s not that stupid.

Yet the board expect you to believe he is?

And that we’re so gullible, we’d believe it too?

That’s what makes this look so ridiculous.

Listen, I’ll break this one down simply for you.

For those of you who might find it hard to understand, the whole deal collapsed on one factor.

Bursaspor were willing to offer it, Celtic weren’t.

Kelechi Iheanacho is 29 years old, he is now heading into the twilight of his career.

The one thing that is most important for a player at this stage in their career is long-term security.

Celtic allowed the option for a year’s extension on his existing contract to expire.

That put Iheanacho in a position to negotiate a different deal.

One that guaranteed him security.

He wanted a 3 year contract, Celtic were only willing to offer him a 2 year deal.

That was the sticking point.

Bursaspor, on the other hand, were willing to meet that demand.

Take the 2 year deal, or take the 3 year deal – and the guarantee of an extra full year’s wages – regardless of what happens?

Simple decision really.

Here’s where honesty pays off in the long run.

When this deal fell through on that basis, all Celtic had to say was this:

We were willing to offer Kelechi Iheanacho a 2 year deal, but he wanted a 3 year deal.

Based on his fitness and injury issues during his first season at Celtic, we were not comfortable that by the age of 32 he could guarantee his fitness levels by the third year of a 3 year deal.

Therefore, we did not want to take the risk on the 3rd year, and the associated wage costs the club might incur as a result of possible injuries and a lack of fitness.

Bursaspor were willing to offer a 3rd year, so regrettably, we have parted ways with Kelechi and wish him all the best in his future career.

We wish thank him sincerely for his incredibly important contribution to our recent double winning season.

Would that have been so hard?

I’m not saying that’s the exact reason the deal fell through.

But if it was, it would make total sense.

Every pound is a prisoner at Celtic.

I’d wager I’m not too far wide of the mark when I say that Michael Nicholson picked up the phone to Dermot Desmond and told him Iheanacho wanted a 3 year deal.

From a financial perspective, Desmond would not agree with it.

You must always follow the money at Celtic.

It is what comes first above all else.

Instead, we were expected to swallow complete bullshit when it came to Kelechi Iheanacho’s wage demands.

This was designed to make Iheanacho look unreasonable, and the club victims of his outlandish demands.

Rather than, of course, admitting that we’re cheapskates.

Which most likely, is the real truth of the matter here.

But, as I said at the outset, Celtic cannot even tell plausible lies.

This is why this whole situation has backfired on them spectacularly.

Yesterday’s attendance at the friendly against Middlesbrough was proof positive of that much.

Expect much more of that if this summer continues to unravel the way it has.

Much, much more.

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