Kelechi Iheanacho won’t be returning to Celtic after his title-winning performances last season.
As you can imagine, this hasn’t gone down well with the Celtic supporters, because they were expecting Iheanacho to return for the 2026/27 Premiership campaign.
Part of those expectations came from the fact that Martin O’Neill himself spoke about Iheanacho wearing the Celtic colours again.
While many question why Iheanacho swapped the Scottish champions for Turkey’s second tier to sign for Bursaspor, O’Neill was pressed on a different aspect of the striker’s exit.
Following Celtic’s pre-season draw against Middlesbrough, O’Neill was asked why the club never triggered the contract extension option they held since the forward arrived on a free transfer under Brendan Rodgers last summer.
However, the Celtic boss hinted at the Nigerian star changing his terms during contract negotiations, stating, ‘the option would be to take someone, I assume, on similar terms as before.’
Kelechi Iheanacho won’t return to Celtic. How do you feel Celtic fans? 🤔🍀
Martin O'Neill has defended the call…😬
Martin O’Neill hints at Kelechi Iheanacho wanting different terms to his original Celtic deal
O’Neill: “There are always two sides to every particular transfer. He’s gone. I thought we had a deal with him at the time, but that seemingly wasn’t the case, so he has gone to pastures new. There we go.”
Reporter: “Just on Iheanacho. When the club announced him last summer, they said that they had an option to extend his deal. It said that the club had an option. Is there a reason you know why that wasn’t triggered?”
O’Neill: “I think the option ran out. That’s fine. But the option would be to take someone, I assume, on similar terms as before. That, I think, is probably the difference, really.
“I thought Iheanacho did terrifically well for us, as a real impact player coming on. He started in my two spells here; he actually started one game for us, which was the game against Dundee United.
“It would have been nice to have him for pre-season, but he has chosen to go elsewhere, and that’s fine. You have to ask him.”
Celtic fans won’t buy O’Neill’s nonsense
The problem with O’Neill is that Celtic fans have heard this story before.
Well before he joined, this was an issue, and it has reared its ugly head again. Not just with Iheanacho, but also Marcelo Saracchi.
Saracchi won’t be returning to Celtic, despite suggestions he wanted to re-join from Boca Juniors after his terrific loan spell last season.
There will be a feeling amongst supporters that O’Neill is protecting those in the boardroom.
For most of the time, or probably all of the time, the Irishman hasn’t had a bad word to say about those running the ship.
All of this is a complete contrast to how the Celtic supporters really feel about the board, including people like Dermot Desmond and Michael Nicholson.
Given O’Neill’s lack of understanding, it will only make him part of the problem, and that’s not a good look given his relationship with the fans.
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