Club chief hits back at Celtic claim over Kelechi Iheanacho wage demands as details of transfer aired
Turkish club have gone public regarding the striker’s salary after snubbing a permanent deal at Parkhead
Celtic missed out on Kelechi Iheanacho’s signature earlier this month after allowing a one-year contract extension option to expire - and his new employers have spoken out over the striker’s wage fiasco.
The 29-year-old hitman played an integral role in helping Martin O’Neill’s side to a domestic league and Scottish Cup double last term, scoring crucial match-winners against Dundee, Hibs and Motherwell during the Premiership run-in before finding the target again in the end-of-season Hampden showpiece against Dunfermline Athletic.
Often utilised as a substitute after initially struggling to prove his fitness, O’Neill was keen to bring the former Leicester City and Sevilla forward back for the new campaign and even claimed he was optimistic about the prospect of securing his services for another 12 months.
However, it was stated that Iheanacho had ramped his wage demands up to £50,000 per week, leaving Celtic unable to proceed in negotiations. And that allowed Turkish second-tier outfit Bursaspor to pounce over the weekend.
The club’s president Enes Celik has since moved to quash suggestions that the striker’s salary had proved a stumbling block. He revealed that a €1.4m (£1.2m) package has been agreed with Iheanacho over three years, ensuring the frontman would be paid around £23k a week.
Speaking at a pre-season press conference, Celik admitted: “We have been in contact with Kelechi Iheanacho for 40 days. It was a bit difficult. I just watched his training session in terms of shooting. He feels different.
“Furkan Akin [Bursaspor’s administrative manager] had serious contacts regarding the Iheanacho transfer. I thank them all. I thank out football department and our Administrative Manager.
“It was important to handle it in a way that was in Bursaspor’s best interests. Iheanacho has a guaranteed salary agreement wit us of 1.4 million euros. We made a three-year agreement.
”There are players in our league who earn 2.2 million euros but are not even half as good as Iheanacho. We are also considering the club’s financial structure.”
O’Neill: ‘There are always two sides to every transfer’
Providing his take on the situation in the wake of Celtic’s 1-1 friendly draw with Middlesbrough on Saturday, O’Neill commented: “There are always two sides to every transfer. He’s gone, I thought we had a deal with him at the time but that wasn’t the case and so he’s gone to pastures new.
“The option ran out, that’s fine. But the option would be to take someone on similar terms to before, so that’s where the difference was. Where Kelechi did terrifically well for us as an impact player coming on. He started one game in my two spells against Dundee United but it would have been nice to have him for pre-season. But he’s chosen to go elsewhere.”