Today our “friends” in the Scottish press are lining up to print stories of Kieran Tierney being off to Arsenal.
A few weeks ago it was Liverpool. Before that it was Spurs. You get the picture, and this isn’t going to stop in spite of the kid himself putting down a marker and saying he’s “100% set” on signing a brand new contract and staying with us long term.
Tierney has been one of the few bright lights this season and it’s no wonder the media wants to see him sold.
He plays in the rather unsexy position of left back, one that normally doesn’t attract a lot of attention, except that in England even a moderately good one will set a team back so much money that it’s not worthwhile for their clubs to shop in the domestic market.
Say today’s flurry of stories are true and not just an effort to unsettle this kid.
£10 million is an insult, as it was with Van Dijk, Wanyama and Forster.
When a kid like Patrick Roberts can go for £12 million after add-ons, it’s a joke that we sold established players for such low sums. Yes, in Scotland they sound fantastic but these clubs would have paid far more for them had they been deals between their own respective sides.
I’m tired not just of losing big players but of getting short changed for it.
That said, the fact English clubs have looked at us so covetously over the years tells you how strong our position as the top team in Scotland still is. For sure, no-ones been offering millions for Tavernier or Waghorn, and there’s no resale value for the likes of Kenny Miller.
Kieran loves it at Celtic.
He’s said so, in a way that doesn’t suggest that he’s talking crap.
A lot of footballers play for money; right now he’s playing for the jersey and the thrill of taking on all-comers in title winning games and cup matches. Wait until he and others – and I’m thinking Sviatchenko in particular – get a taste of Champions League nights at Celtic Park.
The media knows that Celtic stands the best chance of getting to ten in a row if we can build, and keep, a squad of players who are committed to the job and would run through walls for the club. As I said yesterday in the piece on reforging the identity of the club, we need guys who get it here, guys who know what the club is all about and to whom money is a secondary consideration to accomplishing great things here at Parkhead.
Kieran is one of those players, so it’s not exactly a shock that the media is trying desperately to unsettle him.
But he seems to have a level head on his shoulders and his statements about wanting to sign a new deal suggest he’s here for the long haul.
If the time ever comes when Kieran decides that the English game is where he wants to be at, well on that day the Premiership boys had better get real with the transfer fee and start to pay Celtic the going rate for top footballers. He’s surely destined to be one of them.