Kyle is not going to Celtic

Last updated : 17 January 2007 By Tony Scholes

News broke yesterday that the Scottish Premier League leaders and likely Champions had offered £500,000 for Kyle and the news was accompanied with quotes from the player which suggested he was keen to pack his bags and move north of the border.

Burnley Football Club remained silent on the issue until this morning, and they have now confirmed the offer and dismissed it out of hand and have made it clear they don't want the bid to be increased because the player is not for sale.

Steve Cotterill said today: “The bid that has been made for Kyle is nowhere near acceptable and with those words we are not encouraging anyone to come back with a bigger bid because he is not for sale.

“Contrary to his few quotes yesterday, there was a clever journalist who tried to catch Kyle out and mis-quoted him. Kyle is neither a Rangers, nor a Celtic fan and he is not interested in leaving. Therefore he is our player.

“A lot of people swoop on Burnley because in previous years we have a record of selling a player in January. We are not doing that this year. We are looking to build our squad and be better and Kyle Lafferty is not only a player for now, but he is one for the future, as is Chris McCann.”

That will hopefully bring this to an end and Kyle can get on with playing for the Clarets, he was back in the starting line up last Saturday, playing alongside new signing Ade Akinbiyi, and he's expected to retain his place for the visit of Norwich this Saturday.