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Tierney Transfer Stories Are Just More Media Lies To Unsettle Celtic

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Kieran Tierney is a fine footballer.

He’s going to become even better over the next few years.

But he’s also just a kid, and one who plays in the SPL.

He’s just won his first cap for Scotland, and whilst I think it’ll be the first of many, he’s not exactly a world renowned name.

We’ve all seen this happen to players at Celtic before.

James Forrest was the last to be hyped all to Hell and back; we all know what happened to him. This Scottish tendency to hype the kids beyond belief; it’s backfired on so many, wrecked the careers of others and swollen the egos of a lot of folk who just weren’t built for it.

Of course, there’s an issue here that’s peculiar to Celtic and it’s this; every player we find, of any calibre at all, suddenly finds himself the target of a torrent of press speculation linking him with all and sundry, and it’s worse before a big game.

Is there one coming up?

Only a cup semi-final.

The strategy here is pretty obvious, and it’s been utilised before and before and before.

The second you started reading headlines about Tierney being potentially “world class” (ludicrous, he’s just a kid and doesn’t need to read that stuff) you knew the transfer hoopla would follow. The thing is, it’s not even particularly creative or well thought out.

The link to Southampton is obvious; they’ve already taken a few of our players, and they like what they’ve got for their money. It stands to reason they’ve been watching goings on at Celtic Park. The hacks could have written the same reports about Sviatchenko – and they doubtless will in future. It’s lazy, but it makes sense when you think about it.

Liverpool makes no sense.

It’s one of those stories for which the term nonsense was devised.

Even the briefest look at the Liverpool first team squad tells you all you need to know.

They have, on the books right now, four very good full-backs who can play in Tierney’s position; Nathaniel Clyne, who’s best position is at right back but is an able deputy on the left side too; John Flanagan, a young youth prospect, who can also play on the right; Jose Enqrique and fellow Spaniard Alberto Moreno.

With all respect to Kieran, three of those players; Clyne, Enrique and Moreno, are better, more experienced footballers than he is.

Flanagan may or may not prove to be at their level, but he’s one of the darlings of their own youth academy.

So today’s reports are actually suggesting that Liverpool are looking to pay as much as £10 million for a player who would be, at best, on the bench every single week.

Now, I have no doubt that Kieran will develop into a really top class player … but three of those guys are at that level right now, and even if press reports in England are right and Enrique is leaving at the end of the season on a free, it still makes no sense at all for the Anfield club to be looking at this kid.

It’s not just lazy reporting; it elevates Scottish football “journalism” into the fiction category.

But it puts ideas in his head, which is what it’s meant to do.

Luckily, he seems grounded and the sort who’ll simply get on with playing here at Parkhead. The fact that he is a product of our youth system means he’s grown up in this club; I know that doesn’t command the same kind of loyalty it once did, but it counts for something even in this day and age.

On top of that, Kieran isn’t going to go somewhere just to sit on the bench.

Even those young players who are motivated by money know that idea is a bust. If you end up a reserve, your next move isn’t going to be for millions; it’ll be to the lower leagues, and there goes any hope of a career in the big wage bracket.

What helps young players most is regular football, week in week out, and Kieran will get that at Celtic Park long into the future.

All in all, this is what we expect our media to do in the run up to big matches.

We’re on the verge of clinching the SPL title and booking a place in the Scottish Cup final. Our media, naturally, wants to talk about something else, about how our plans for the squad are going to be disrupted by this player leaving and that player leaving.

Last week it was Nir Bitton, and they had hoped to get him to say something dramatic.

What he said, instead, was that Celtic was too big a club to leave for a mid-table European battler in England. Arsenal or a club of that calibre would be the only ones to get him to depart Parkhead. This week, the media is going to try to put all the pressure on a kid.

Tells you everything, doesn’t it?

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