Peterborough chairman Barry Fry insists Ivan Toney would have WALKED to Celtic - but deemed the Parkhead club's offer "insulting".
The Premiership champions were keen to land the striker in the summer but saw a £5million bid turned down.
Eventually West Ham's Albian Ajeti arrived to bolster the attack, while Toney moved to English Championship side Brentford.
He's since hit 14 goals in 16 league games, but Fry insists he could easily have been banging them in for Neil Lennon.
He told the Scottish Sun : "Ivan wanted to go to Celtic. They should have pulled their finger out but they f***** about.
“Good job I never waited for them to sell (Odsonne) Edouard because they didn’t anyway.
“The boy’s done brilliant for Brentford — and that’s what I expected.
"Ivan’s different class. Premier League clubs are ringing me up about him.
“Those clubs wanted to take him before but that was just to put him on their benches. Now they want to take him to play.
“They might get £30-50m for him if he carries on the way he is.
"Ivan wanted to go to Celtic because of the relationship he had with Gavin Strachan through working with him at Peterborough last season.
“And let’s be fair, Celtic are also one of the biggest clubs in the world with their support.
“At the time, they were prepared to give him £25,000 a week — more than what the others were prepared to.
“That said, he’s got a better deal at Brentford. Brentford really wanted him and did their homework. But Ivan would have WALKED to Celtic.
"Nicky flew down to see me but Celtic’s bid was insulting. I told Nicky he’d wasted a flight.
“I’d spoken to him on the phone and told him what we wanted.
“I’d have waited. I told Gavin and Nick I was happy to do that — provided they came up with the right money. They said they didn’t have the money but would have if they sold Edouard."
