Reports emerged yesterday suggesting that we are allegedly in the driving seat to bring Kieran Tierney back to Glasgow. I take this with the same pinch of salt I’ve taken every rumour linking Tierney with a return to Celtic over the years.
Let me be as clear as I can: I am wholly against this idea. I do not understand the excitement over it at all. It does not fill me with the slightest enthusiasm. I don’t believe we should pursue it. I don’t believe we should even consider it. Nobody would be satisfied with the outcome if we did.
Kieran Tierney had his time at Celtic, and it was outstanding. He was a tremendous servant to this club. But Kieran Tierney is not the same player he was when he left. He is a lesser footballer now, having spent far too much time out injured.
The appeal of this idea is driven solely by sentiment and a lack of imagination. There are better options than a player whose fitness will always be a concern. I treasure my memories of Tierney as a Celtic player, and I would prefer to leave them exactly as they are.
It serves no one’s interests to entertain this notion.
If Tierney were truly fit and capable of playing every week, we wouldn’t stand a chance of signing him. Everybody knows this. It’s not a secret. I’ve seen people argue, “Even with his injury record, this is a good idea,” but it’s not.
His injury record is precisely why this would be a terrible idea.
If not for his fitness issues, Arsenal wouldn’t be letting him go. And even if they were, they wouldn’t be doing so for free. The only scenario where Celtic would be “in the driving seat” to bring him back is if no other club wanted him, and if we are the top club vying for his signature people should be wondering why that is.
Let’s not forget that Tierney chose to leave Celtic. People so often overlook this, or they don’t like to be reminded of it. He wanted to play at the highest level. If he still has the opportunity to do so that’s the path he’ll choose to follow, and therefore all of this talk is meaningless, rendered nothing but spit in the rain.
And if Tierney isn’t fit enough to play every week, then signing him is pointless. It would be a waste of resources, no matter what the fee or wage structure looks like. Even if he agreed to a massive pay cut, we’d still be throwing money away in pursuit of a sentimental fantasy.
There is no footballing justification for this move.
Rodgers emphasises pace and power. Is that still Tierney?
This side is super-fit. We all know there have been only a handful of injuries in this campaign so far.
To be in this side is to adapt to it, and to be able to meet its levels.
Can he still do that?
He’s not the same player. His injury issues have taken their toll.
When fit, he barely makes the Arsenal squad because he’s no longer the player they paid a fortune for. We need to focus on players who are dependable, fit, and possess the right qualities to strengthen our team. Spending resources on Tierney would be nonsensical.
I take some comfort in Tierney’s own words. He has said he wouldn’t return to Celtic unless he could be the player he was before. He knows, as well as we do, that he isn’t that player anymore. He knows he can’t give us 100% like he did in his first spell here. The experience wouldn’t satisfy him, Celtic, or the fans who expect him to be the superstar he once was. He simply wouldn’t be.
The only thing incredible about this would be if Celtic were genuinely considering it. I’d question the sanity of anyone at the club who let sentiment override common sense to this sort of extent. In my view, it would be detrimental to the team.
I mean I get the attraction for some people, but they need to stop thinking about the player he was and start thinking about the footballer we’d get. If we stood a chance of getting back the Tierney who left, I’d be delighted. If we actually completed the deal, I’d dig out my old jersey with his name on it and wear it for a week.
But I’m unmoved by sentimentality. I value him for the player he was, not just because “he’s one of our own.” Leave that sort of rubbish for the club across town. The idea of Celtic Park rising to welcome back a prodigal son sounds nice and it would be well received on an emotional level. None of that matters to me.
What I want is a team built on players we can rely on—players who can be there every week and contribute consistently. If we’re going to spend money, it should be on players who don’t carry this level of risk.
Left-back is a critical position. We can’t afford to mess about here and sign someone for that slot based on the emotional pull of seeing a famous name back in the Hoops. Are we a serious club or are we not? If we place someone in that role who can’t be counted on to play every game, we’re being reckless.
I imagine the chances of this happening are very remote—and they should be. I’d prefer those chances were zero. Celtic are supposed to be building for the future. Moves like this don’t align with that goal. This idea is absurd, and I hope either Tierney or the manager distances themselves, and thus the club, from it.
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We haven’t been that successful in finding Tierney’s replacement. The current incumbent is adequate, and the Barcelona loanee transaction was criticised on here. If there is better available, he hasn’t been signed in the last 5 years.
Hope KT signs in January to give the team a great lift.He would be even better than AJ.
I definitely hear your sentiments Terry – But ma only concern is the unrepentant thuggery that he’d face on a weekly basis up here…
Probably the reason that he’s spent 50% plus in London on a treatment slab !
I agree that KT is not the solution but I do think there probably is some facts behind these reports.
The fact is the club do have an element of sentimentality about them. We have had countless players who have been passed there best but continued to be selected for the team because of there previous services.
We have them in this current team. James Forrest is a guy who realistically if we want to step up to the next level & be a real force in Europe should not have been given a contract extension. So far this season he has been a shadow of himself even compared to last season.
I’ve not seen every Celtic game this season but I don’t think I can think of any I have watched where James has done his run to the byline & cut it in. So far he has played the safe pass back or into the middle.
Mikael Lustig is another that probably should have been dropped down the pecking order 2 seasons before he left. He was always the weak link in the back line on pace & is probably the reason people like Ryan Kent were perceived to be effective against us.
Scott Brown would have been allowed to stay at the club for as long as he wanted but knew he didn’t want to become a bit part player so walked away on his terms not the clubs.
I think if all the starts aligned then KT will be back in the summer unfortunately. He is reportably on £120k/week at Arsenal. For how injury prone he is at most you could justify 10% of that as he will likely miss large portions of the season.
It’s not going to happen at that price. He will end up at a lower prem team like Leicester or Crystal Palace maybe even top Championship sides.
But my main thought is that I do think the people within the club will think this is a viable avenue & it will be strongly based on nostalgia of the player he was for us.
I’d love KT to come back & find his fitness but if he can’t stay fit in the EPL or La Liga which are both less physical leagues than the SPFL he has no chance of keeping fit unfortunaltely.
I disagree. If expectations are not that he plays every game he could be a good signing, especially as we bleed through his successor. We’ve signed an entire team of LBs to replace him since he left and none of them have worked, save a brief spell for Taylor during peak Angeball. It’s a problem area for us, opponents target that area, and looking at his performance last night showed the kind of crossed balls we have been crying out for from the left for years now. There may well be better out there, but we’ve done a terrible job of finding it, and if we can seriously get him on a deal that isn’t horrendously expensive he’s well worth the punt…as long as Rodgers is confident he can manage his game time.
Bring KT home where he belongs.
The money we have in the bank was partly contributed to by KT and I’m sure that was also a contributory factor in his thinking when he left Celtic, for it also greatly benefited the Club. We cannot lose overall on the deal, so it is not really a gamble, and I am sure his reduced wages will not be a concern for a player who loves our club and who we know will give his absolute all to the Celtic cause. Brendan wants to improve the quality of the side and Kieran will certainly do that.
Bring our Bhoy home.
100% agree with you James. Love KT bit of a club legend and all but if you got a Ferrari in the shed you don’t need a Fiat….also James Forrest is a stone cold club legend and is above criticism imo.He has given so much for Celtic the good out weights the bad. Jamesey gets a free pass from me glad to have him on board
I agree totally with your sentiments toward James Forrest. One of the best servants the club has ever had but your comment on him giving him a free pass is exactly the point I was making.
The club lives on sentiment, I don’t think it’s a bad thing btw. It’s part of the reason we are who we are, not just anyone gets to pull ok the Celtic shirt & not just anyone gets the adulation of the fans but that comes with the negatives of allowing players to stay beyond there realistic shelf life because of what they have done for the club.
I don’t begrudge James getting the contract but if we weren’t sentimental to the former players & long serving players he wouldn’t get a contract based on anything other than being a club legend.
Another example not on the pitch is John Kennedy, now I think the perception of JK has changed immeasurably since the first time BR took over as I remember people calling for him to be kicked out the club as he was just taking a wage because of his injuries.
The way BR & Ange have spoken of him & the fact they have attempted to take him with them when they left has put him in good standing with the fans again as he is clearly a key member of the back room staff regardless of how he got the job initially.
This is a no Brainer. Kieran was a great player, but injuries have taken their toll. He is no longer the player we would welcome back, we could probably be able to sign someone with a future and not a past on a fraction of his wages. No sentiment when it comes down to future success. Thanks for the memories, but we move on.
On this one I will defer to Brendan Rodgers who will weigh the pros and cons – overall cost, likely level of game time and (something we don’t easily see) his influence on the squad during training. If KT comes back and helps set standards at training and (to use James’ phrase) is a “good soldier” that is all part of the value equation.
The irony at Arsenal is that Arteta probably owes his job to KT who drove them through a spell when it looked like Arteta was heading for the sack – he got Arteta safe and then got injured (and Arsenal lost 5/10 of their last league games). Arteta then bought Zinchenko. KT struggles with the inverted fullback role and that has done for him as much as injuries at Arsenal.
I wouldn’t underestimate the pull of Celtic on KT at this stage of his career – he has been earning silly money for five years in England. He won’t get offered the same again in England elsewhere. Moving home with zero financial worries and playing for the club you love, hopefully with increasing European adventures and under an elite manager has a lot of attraction.
“KT struggles with the inverted fullback role…” That’s another reason why the idea is a bad one – Brendan has Greg Taylor inverted hence why he was one in the middle of the pitch passing it straight to Bajrami for their first goal on Sunday.
Injury prone and can’t play the role he would be expected to play here – hardly a ringing endorsement…..
I’ve done a complete 180 on this. I don’t like any players coming back , it usually is a waste, sentimentality and nothing more but even if we pay Tierney £50k a week for 10 years we’d still have made a profit on him. His ability is still there at 27, he’s no write-off. It could pay off with lb secured for the next 4/5 years and maybe he could play CB beyond that. It’s a risk and I’m not sure it’s one we need to take but in a sense, we can’t lose.
I would love to see him coming back. He’s still only 27 and world class in my opinion. Even though he’s been going through a rough patch with injuries, it doesn’t mean that will always be the case and that his career is to be written off. If he has a club fully behind him and not just loaning him out making feel completely unvalued, then I am sure he will get back to full fitness.