Celtic Will Hit The Jackpot In More Ways Than One If Tierney Leaves Arsenal For Spain.

The rumours surrounding Kieran Tierney moving to Spain continue to gather pace. It looks almost certain that he will depart London this summer, for an even sexier destination. It is a credit to this kid that he has already earned such acclaim in his career. He is only going to get better and Spain is the ultimate place for him to prove his quality.

Kieran is entitled to bask in the glory of what he’s achieved here. But he’s not the only one who should be feeling good about things. He is a product of our youth academy, and that it has turned out such an exception footballer reflects well on us.

You only have to look at the evolving farce of Nathan Patterson, who the media hyped to a fare-thee-well and who Everton took a major punt on, to see how this all could have turned out. If Patterson flops that will damage their club’s standing. He’s the only major youth project they have sold on … it will not look good if he doesn’t succeed.

Our own academy produces player after player after player. Aside from having a great reputation for developing stars who we buy, we now have Tierney as solid gold proof that that academy can turn out genuinely world class performers, although anyone watching Callum McGregor consistently knows that this was never really in doubt anyway.

Celtic’s credibility only increases with this thing. The club’s reputation for being a good place to find players is already sterling. If Tierney goes for mega-bucks, to one of the two biggest clubs in the world, then that can only enhance that reputation … not to mention that it will put another large chunk of change into the club accounts.

How envious it must make people elsewhere, and how Everton, in particular, must be cursing their luck at having spent decent money – not massive money, but decent – on a footballer from this city who isn’t going to make the grade.

Win some, lose some I guess.