Kieran Tierney

Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon had no worries about teammate Kieran Tierney playing at centre-half for Scotland, joking that the youngster is so good he could play in goals.

Gordon hailed Tierney’s performance as he captained his country for the first time in central defence in the narrow defeat to The Netherlands on Thursday night.

And the stopper doesn’t think that playing Tierney away from his favoured left-back position affects his performance levels at all because he is such an accomplished all-round player.

“I don’t really know what his best position is because he can do anything,” said Gordon.

“I want to give him a shot of the gloves and see if he can do that as well! I’m sure he could because every position he plays he does exceptionally well.

“He is just a terrific footballer. He is good enough to go and play in midfield as well. It doesn’t matter where he is asked to play. He always gives everything he’s got.”

Gordon wasn’t surprised to see Tierney handed the armband for his country by interim boss Malky Mackay on Thursday night despite his tender years, becoming the youngest Scotland skipper since Darren Fletcher in 2004 at the age of just 20.

For Gordon, the natural leadership qualities he possesses made him an obvious choice.

“I was looking across the team and going through the potential captains and he was one of the top ones on my list,” he said.

“He has done it at Celtic and I’m sure there will be a lot more occasions when he is captain of his club and his country. He has always had the potential to be a captain.

“He is a leader, he leads by example and he is good in the changing room as well. He has such a strong character.”

 

He really has got it all

 

Favourite word?

Kieran Tierney: Steaks. I like steaks
https://mobile.twitter.com/CelticLisboa/status/929810383883456512/video/1

 

darn sound on phone doesn't work

 

Watch it on yer laptop.

 

Stone Roses!
Couldn't love this guy anymore

 

Stone Roses are *, Kieran Tierney is not.

 

If there was a dislike option for this comment, rest assured I'd have definitely clicked it

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/kierantierney1/status/930178692801851392

 

Stone Roses and Jake Bugg.

He's the sort of person I should dislike. Yet I adore him.

 

Tierney doesn't try, Tierney does.....

 

KIERAN Tierney is in line to make it 100 not out for the Celtic first team at the tender age of 20 in Dingwall this Saturday – but the unflappable Parkhead full back reckons it is no big deal. The academy product has taken everything in his stride as he has made his mark in continental and international football in the last three seasons and won’t let the honour of reaching a century of top team appearances at his boyhood heroes faze him a bit.

“No matter when I play my 100th game for Celtic, I will just treat it like any other,” said Tierney. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, I’ll train hard for it.”

It always helps when you are surrounded by those who have been there, done that and got the t-shirt. So the left back thanked Scott Brown, his regular captain for club and country, for showing him the ropes as he prepared to take the Scotland armband for the first time.

The hugely promising full back, who has already captained Celtic this term, assumed leadership of his country for the first time against the Netherlands on Thursday, putting in his usual assured display albeit from an unfamiliar centre back berth in the 1-0 defeat at Pittodrie.

Brown, the regular captain for both club and country, helped fill in the blanks. “He [Brown] supported me when he heard I was getting the armband,” said Tierney. “He’s been great in that respect the past few years. I’ve been captain at Celtic a couple of times and he’s supported me then too.”

He might have played the role on the night like a grizzled veteran but centre back in a 4-4-2 is not even a position he has had experience of in training. “I’ve only played centre back once recently so I’ve not had much time to adapt,” said the 20-year-old. “I’ve not really been looking to get coached in that position.

“The last few months I’ve had coaching at right-back and obviously I normally play left-back. I just need to adapt my game wherever I’m asked to play.”

So effortlessly has Tierney taken everything in his stride that you might imagine he is impervious to the curse of the young player, and that form dip which he has to kick himself out. As confident as he is in his own ability, the 20-year-old was honest enough this week to say that he fully expects a dip in that remarkable form to come for him sooner or later too. It is just a matter of making sure he can bounce back from it.

“A dip WILL come for me,” said Tierney. “100 per cent. It’s just how I approach it and deal with it.

“You try and stay away from negative thoughts,” he added. “No one goes out to play badly. You obviously don’t want that. But I’m sure it will come. And if it does, it’s not the end of the world. People can play badly. It’s happened to plenty of players who’ve come out the other side. You try your best to make sure it doesn’t happen. You’ve got people by your side to support you. But everyone is human. If it does happen, I’d just need to bounce back.”
















AS a boyhood Celtic supporter, lifting the Scottish Cup at Hampden to complete an invincible treble must be one of the best feelings in the world. The only problem was that Kieran Tierney wasn't able to feel anything much.

If the 20-year-old was high as a kite the last time he lifted silverware at the national stadium that probably had more to do with the anaesthetic he was loaded with in hospital after being rushed off the pitch during the first half of last May's showpiece against Aberdeen for emergency dental work after being on the receiving end of a swinging elbow from Aberdeen’s Jayden Stockley.

So much drama unfolded from that point on that Tierney would be forgiven for feeling if he was hallucinating. He was in the back of a taxi when he learned of Tom Rogic's thrilling last-minute winner, then staged a last-gasp dash through the car park to take part in the celebrations. But let's just say Tierney would prefer to be rather less woozy if he is able to climb those steps again in next Sunday's BetFred Cup semi-final against his hometown team Motherwell. In fact, it will make for a change just to be in one piece after a major final, as the club's celebrations of their 2016 BetFred Cup win came at a time when the full back was rehabilitating from ankle and shoulder operations.

“I honestly couldn’t honestly feel much,” recalled Tierney of last season's Scottish Cup drama. “I’d just had an operation which meant an anaesthetic.

“But I’ve watched the moment when I lift the cup a few times and it’s brilliant. It felt like a fairy tale for me getting up the stairs in time to do that.

“I literally just got back into the stadium, looked up and there were only a couple of people still waiting to lift the trophy.

“So I just ran up the stairs. Everything happens for a reason in life. For me to get back there on time was just brilliant.

“I’d been running through the car park in my boots so I got a bit of abuse from Aberdeen fans. But I was just so happy. I’d heard on the radio that we’d scored in the last minute so I was full of emotion.”

Just perhaps fate is working in Tierney's favour again. This time, the fates pit him against Motherwell, the team whose Fir Park ground he still lives a stone’s throw away from. He has lived in the area since leaving the Isle of Man at a young age and has plenty of old schoolfriends in the area – even if most of them ‘are Celtic fans!’ What's more the match may even fall upon the occasion of his 100th appearance for the Celtic first team - although in all likelihood his importance to the team means that will almost certainly come against Ross County in Dingwall this Saturday.

“It won’t be strange playing against Motherwell - even though it’s my hometown team,” he said. “I’ve played against them plenty of times now through the youth levels and into the first-team. It’s another game.

“I’m friends with Chris Cadden - I went to high school with him and I speak with him quite a lot,” he added. “So I know all the Motherwell fans and players are up for this in a big way. It’s a cup final so they’re bound to be. It’s a great achievement for them to get there but they’ll now be looking to win it. They’re a very good team. They’ve shown that this season through many of the results they’ve got. They’ll be a very hard team to beat.”

 

You paint that.

 

I’d struggle to draw a matchstick man. Seen it on a Celtic page

http://www.michaeljamesmonaghan.com/

 

Any links to the page because I want the picture.