Kieran Tierney

PERHAPS one of the factors in the disconnect between the Celtic support and the club in recent years has been that, no sooner have the former taken a favoured player to their hearts than he abandons them, wooed away by a wealthier suitor.

Ki Sung Yeung, Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama, Fraser Forster, Jason Denayer and Virgil van Dijk have all come and gone in recent years, sold to balance the books and compensate for the failure to generate significant income from European competition.

ADVERTISING

inRead invented by Teads
There is a pragmatism at play here, too. None of the aforementioned claimed to grow up playing Subbuteo with their team in green-and-white hoops, nor were they weaned on tales of the Lisbon Lions.


Kiernan Tierney is different. Not only did he grow up cheering on the club whose shirt he wears with such obvious pride but, speaking after being named as PFA Scotland’s Young Player of the Year, the 18-year-old made it perfectly clear he has no intention of playing for anyone else.

“Celtic is my dream club,” he said. “I have been here for 11 years and I am playing first-team football for the club I grew up supporting.

“I’m loving every minute of it. I tend not to look at stories about me too much, although sometimes you cannot avoid it. I’ve been linked with big clubs but it’s just Celtic for me.

“Like I say, it’s the dream. I’ve probably used the word dream a lot this season, but it really is for me to be playing in the first-team at Celtic.

“I need to realise how lucky I am to be in this position and I try my best every day to be so grateful for it. When you are a wee guy, you want to grow up and become a Celtic legend.


“Obviously, I am miles off that just now because my career has only just started. I just hope I can keep on playing for Celtic. That’s all I want.”

Tierney was mad about Celtic even before he signed his first forms for them while still at primary school in Lanarkshire and his relatives share his passion.

“I used to love going to the games as a ball-boy,” he revealed. “You would go to the ground really early and hit some shots, then give the players the ball back when they hit their shots during the warm-up.

“So I know exactly how the current boys will be feeling and their dream will be the same as mine was, to go on and play for the first team.”


Tierney is now guaranteed a place in the club’s record books after claiming his first winner’s medal, effectively guaranteeing a fifth successive Premiership title with the 3-1 victory over Hearts on 
Saturday.

“If you saw me at Tynecastle, you would have noticed that I didn’t want to come off the pitch,” he grinned. “I honestly didn’t want the celebrations to end.

“Obviously, it was such an amazing occasion for me and I was really passionate about it; that’s why I was celebrating with the fans.

“It was a dream come true but the other reason I stayed on the park so long was that I was searching for my family! I knew they were in the ground somewhere but I couldn’t catch their eye because I didn’t know what seats they were in.

“Naturally, I didn’t want to go back to the dressing room without seeing them, but I had to. I couldn’t spot them. It turned out that they were up the back of the stand, which is why I missed them.”


Winning his first Scotland cap when he started the 1-0 
victory over Denmark at Hampden in March seems all the more remarkable to a teenager who had anticipated that he could have been accumulating experience in League 1 or League 2 rather than facing Christian Eriksen.

“I never ever thought these things could have happened to me, especially at such a young age,” he said. “People say coming through at Celtic is hard and there is no doubt that it is because it’s a club with such high standards.

“I was fortunate enough to be given the chance when I’d probably have expected at this point to still be playing for the Under-20s or, maybe, out on loan at a lower league club somewhere.”

 

What a kid..

We all dream of a team of wee KT's..

 

Statue time

 

Speaks as intelligently as he plays. Grounded and mature. Can't speak highly enough of the lad.

 

Brilliant. He gets it.

 

I know it's early to say but he really strikes me as one of those special one club players.

 

If he wasn't the fans favourite before, he is now.

Great stuff, if we can bring through a few more of our own, and get some foreign players as 'luxury' players, we'd have a team that really plays for the badge. That's all I want from Celtic right now tbh.

 

Izzy better find a new house

 

Nice words. Let's just hope he still feels the same in two or three seasons time when the English clubs start offering him big money.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/NBFootball/status/728138335542108161

 

We can accept an offer for him tomorrow but if he wants to stay he stays

 

Came to the Celtic supporters club few hours ago

 

One of his quieter days today. Didn't help that he had the completely ineffective Armstrong in front of him.

He is going to have a big season next year.

 

Aye I don't think he put in a single cross. Very quiet indeed.

 

Love the boy Celtic supporters club London road after the game brilliant

 

Kieran with the Green Brigade scarf are you in the CSA just now

 

That's pure class that