Greg Taylor was a fantastic Celtic success story. We wish him well.

Way back, maybe two or three seasons ago, I said to critics of Greg Taylor that the only real problem they had with him was that his name wasn’t Kieran Tierney.

We’ve searched far and wide for a replacement for Greg Taylor — for an upgrade on Greg Taylor — almost since the day he was signed. Now, on the day that he has finally decided to go, he should do so with all of our thanks.

The irony, of course, is that he’s only going now because we’ve finally found his replacement. And I think that it speaks volumes about Greg Taylor that it’s only because we’ve managed to bring Tierney home that we’ve finally found someone who’s better than he is.

Call that a failure of scouting. Call it a failure of imagination. Whatever you want. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that he saw off all comers, and the only one he never stood a chance against was this guy he’s always compared to.

I personally am immensely grateful for all that Greg Taylor has done in a Celtic shirt, and I wish him nothing but the best of times in the new club he goes to. He’s chosen to move to Greece, with its warm climate and its good standard of living, and he deserves it. He’s been a proper Celtic warrior. A player who has given us nothing but good service. He’s been the quintessential good soldier.

He has endured all manner of barbs and constant speculation about his future from almost the day he first pulled on a Celtic top.

One of the things we’ve discussed over and over again on this site is that skill and ability are not enough. They are nice things to have — essential, even — if you’re going to be a Celtic icon and a key part of a team that takes giant strides.

But on their own, they’re worthless.

If you lack the heart, the character, the mentality to pull that top on and make it your own, you’re never going to succeed here.

There are people in our media ecosystem right now who are determined to talk Lennon Miller out of any notion that he should sign for Celtic. And I’ve always said that implicit in their comments is the idea that Miller lacks some fundamental characteristic that would enable him to be a success in a Celtic shirt.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m well aware there’s also fear in those comments. Fear that he would succeed in a Celtic shirt. But essentially, they’re saying he lacks something.

Greg Taylor faced those same questions from the first minute he pulled the shirt on.

Nobody — and I mean nobody — believed when Taylor was signed that he would still be a first-team player, a first pick, all this time on. To almost everyone, his signing appeared to be a stopgap — “keep him around until we find someone better.” That was the common view. I held that view myself for a long time. In fact, I was saying right up until the last few weeks that we should be seeking an upgrade.

But you know who never believed that? Taylor himself.

If you want to look around you for the absolute poster boy for the kind of mentality Celtic needs — the kind of mentality crucial to success at a club like ours — you could not and will not find a better person than Greg Taylor.

His strength of character and self-belief never allowed him for a second to think he was unworthy of the Celtic shirt or somehow a poor choice to wear it. Even when every summer was filled with stories about who we were bringing in to take his place, Taylor never let it get into his head. Never let it under his skin. He continued to believe in himself, and he played every game with that conviction.

I wish every player in our squad had that level of self-discipline. That ability to motivate themselves. That ability to keep believing in spite of all the barbs, all the critics. If every player in our team had that, we’d be vastly better off for it.

And it’s that self-belief and that strong mentality that made Greg Taylor into a Celtic player — not just a guy who played for Celtic.

Yes, Taylor deserved the shirt. He earned the shirt with every day he fought and clawed and dug deep. He was more than an adequate footballer for that side of the pitch. He was more than a cheap and easy option.

The cheap options don’t stick around. They don’t endure. They don’t hold onto the jersey through what Taylor had to put up with.

I remember once talking about David Turnbull and saying that he still had to make the transition from being David Turnbull the former Motherwell player and David Turnbull the Celtic player. I always thought Turnbull never quite got there. It might not have been about mentality, or even skill — I just never got the impression he evolved from being a player Celtic signed into a Celtic player.

I like David Turnbull. This isn’t a dig at him. But Taylor made that evolution. He completed that journey — and he did it early.

And the highest praise I can give him is this: in all these past few years, he never once looked like he didn’t belong on the pitch.

Yes, we lamented certain mistakes. Yes, we criticised certain decisions. But by and large, he bled for the cause. He took one for the team. He was always there when you needed him. He never shirked. He never hid. He always gave his best.

Greg Taylor didn’t cost us a lot of money. And that’s the difference between a player’s value and his valuation. By any measurable metric, he was a success. By any measurable metric, he was a steal.

And it doesn’t bother me that we didn’t get X-number of millions for him when he left. He repaid that transfer fee over and over again.

Had he decided to stay, he would have been a very good backup to the player he was originally signed to replace.

But I’m not surprised that he chose not to do that. I’d have been more surprised if he had. Because Taylor never regarded himself as a lesser player than Tierney. Never thought he was just keeping the jersey warm. Taylor was nobody’s understudy. He was nobody’s second choice. He’s earned the right to consider himself a first-team footballer — perhaps even a first pick.

Football is filled with people who never made the best of the talents they had. Some went to the wrong clubs and made career-changing mistakes. Others just didn’t have the mental fortitude to reach their peak.

Greg Taylor embarrasses all of them. Because he went above and beyond. He didn’t just reach his limit. He exceeded it. He went beyond his talent.

So thank you, Greg Taylor, for what you brought to this club. For every ounce you gave to it. For every game you played. For every bit of commitment you showed. Every Celtic supporter should be united in wishing you well — and every success and happiness in the future, because you deserve all of it.

You have been an outstanding servant to this club and you deserve to be recognised as an integral part of some outstanding Celtic teams, and maybe that’s the most impressive thing about you — because for you, the team was always first.

In a game full of egos run riot, you quietly earned your legend.