If you ask Celtic fans the player they’d hate to sell, then you can be rest assured a big number of them will say Kieran Tierney.

The left-back is a boyhood Hoops fan and he’s probably the player that the Celtic support can relate to the most.

As a player, Tierney is also superb and that’s why some top sides are keeping a watchful eye on what happens next with the Scottish international.

It seems that Everton could be the first to make a concrete bid for the twenty-one year old. It seems the Goodison Park side believe Tierney could be the ideal long-term replacement for veteran Leighton Baines.

Now Celtic fans might argue that the Toffees don’t represent a step up for the defender but that’s subjective.

The Glaswegians will point to the Merseyside club’s lack of trophies in recent years and the fact that unlike the Scottish Premiership champions, the Premier League team don’t compete in Europe’s top club competition.

Everton fans will argue that they do have a rich history, a strong fanbase, play in a top league and that they’ve been splashing the cash since Farhad Moshiri became the club’s majority shareholder.

Now Celtic don’t necessarily need to sell the young full-back. They’ve got money in the bank and Kieran has five years left on his contract. That being said the Parkhead outfit love bringing in a profit and getting a reported £25m for a youth product must have Peter Lawwell drooling at the mouth.

Another issue could be that with Everton bidding for Tierney’s services, then maybe some bigger club that’s kept an eye on the left-back will enter the race for his signature. Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Atletico Madrid have all been linked with the player this summer.

Now that could mean even more money for the Celtic bank balance but it would also mean that Kieran Tierney might find it harder to turn down a fellow Champion League team.

You can see why such illustrious sides are interested in the full-back.

Tierney is an extremely smart and versatile defender.

He’s naturally a strong left-back but he’s also been used as a centre-back in a back three and as a right-back for Scotland. His ability to almost effortlessly fill-in in these new roles, shows that he’s a committed team player. He’s strong going forward but is also determined to get back into a defensive position and win the ball back for his team.

The Celtic number sixty-three is also becoming a leader within the team and keeps improving as each year passes. Personally. I’d say he’s already as good as Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson and that Tierney has the potential to be even better!

Before this latest round of speculation I’d have bet on Kieran staying on at Celtic Park. He loves the club and playing in front of the Hoops faithful.

Yet Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has planted a seed of doubt into my brain:

“It will be down to the club in the end. If an astronomical fee comes in for a player and he has wages to match that, the transfer window can dictate he may have to go.”

Now Brendan does go on to say he’d love to see Tierney stay but that quote suggests to me that the idea of Kieran Tierney leaving Parkhead is a possibility and that the Celtic boss is subtly warning the team’s fans that it could happen within the next few months.

You can be guaranteed that Celtic will only sell the talisman if the right (big) bid comes in for the young star.

Posted on July 1st, 2018 by scott
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