The very considered it has Celtic supporters giddy with delight. Kieran Tierney again within the Hoops, again in entrance of the Inexperienced Brigade with the loudhailer, again tearing up that left flank like the times of previous.
The hearsay mill has been buzzing over a return for the Scotland worldwide since he was noticed chatting with supervisor Brendan Rodgers at a gala occasion for the membership’s charity basis in London in October – and the probabilities of it coming to go look to be growing by the day.
Rodgers didn’t precisely deny an curiosity when quizzed on Friday. It’s generally established now that the chance of placing collectively a deal is being actively investigated. There appears a zeal on all sides to correctly get all the way down to enterprise now that Arsenal have confirmed they won’t be triggering a one-year contract extension for the defender in the summertime.
It’s an enormous story, all proper. An thrilling one. But, the prospect of a generational expertise comparable to Tierney going again to Celtic on the age of 27 is a matter of unhappiness fairly than celebration.
Certainly, the concept of him going again to successfully finish his profession at Celtic Park alongside fellow academy graduate Callum McGregor feels nothing wanting tragic.
Kieran Tierney and Callum McGregor could possibly be reunited at Celtic subsequent season
McGregorlifts the League Cup after final weekend’s penalty shootout win over Rangers
Each males are vastly gifted gamers. Each, significantly if Tierney re-signs, will go down as figures of actual significance within the workforce’s latest historical past. However wanting past the partisan and parochial nature of the Scottish recreation, the sensation stays that each must be doing extra with their careers than residing as large fish within the stagnant, whiffy pond of the SPFL.
That boat has sailed for McGregor, after all. He had his probability to go when Rodgers ended his first keep in Paradise to go south to Leicester Metropolis in 2019 and was clearly glad together with his lot in Glasgow.
His reward, in some unspecified time in the future over the subsequent season or two, will come within the type of being topped Celtic’s most embellished participant of all-time.
It will likely be a particular achievement, for certain. One thing to dine out on down the many years. A matter of justifiable private satisfaction.
McGregor has been a beautiful servant to Celtic, a implausible ambassador and face of the membership, and must be understood for placing private contentment forward of chasing desires in England or overseas.
But, it’s totally inconceivable to mirror on the 31-year-old’s time within the recreation and never surprise how far he might actually have gone.
Rodgers wished to take him to Leicester, have him as on-field basic imposing his fashion of play on the remainder of the workforce. He has since acknowledged his perception that McGregor – such an clever participant with such positional, tactical sense – had every part in his locker to go on and play for one of many large six groups within the English Premier League.
Tierney’s time at Arsenal has been interrupted by health issues
The Scotland defender made an influence on mortgage at Actual Sociedad final season
That’s open to debate, after all, however it could have been good to see him strive. As an alternative, for all his medals and reminiscences, that large query of how far he might have gone will all the time linger.
In that summer season of 2019, every part appeared doable for him and Tierney. The world was at their toes.
At 26 years previous, McGregor was on the good stage of his profession to take the good leap ahead. Because it was, Tierney ended up the one to have the door to the promised land of the English top-flight opened to him with a £25million transfer to Arsenal.
It’s the place the story of the 2 gamers differs. Tierney *did* have a go. Ultimately, largely by accidents, it hasn’t fairly labored out as deliberate. The transfer south additionally gave him a distinct expertise in going to Actual Sociedad on mortgage final season, regardless that health points lower that quick too.
It’s straightforward to see why Tierney could be open to returning to Parkhead. He has acknowledged previously that leaving the membership he helps to go to Arsenal was a choice that saved him awake at night time.
He’s on report as stating that enjoying for Celtic is ‘the final word’. He misses the place. Loves it. He has challenged himself at a excessive stage, glad that urge, and could really feel the time is true – paycut or no paycut – to return again to the place he feels and calls residence.
It’s simply that he’s nonetheless solely 27, for crying out loud. There’ll certainly be curiosity from different golf equipment when he’s free to agree a pre-contract in January.
If he can get himself into good bodily form and discover a strategy to put the harm points which have dogged him to mattress, there might effectively be different particular adventures on the market for him. Celtic will all the time be there. Maybe a stop-off level after yet another investigation of what would possibly exist in different worlds. Another shot at seeing the place his expertise would possibly but take him.
Going again to Glasgow would simply really feel like some sort of admission of defeat, an acceptance that he tried his luck on the high stage and it didn’t fairly ship, that his physique possibly wasn’t as much as it and desires a much less exacting atmosphere during which to function.
Who is aware of what else is perhaps provided to him, although? Perhaps nothing will excite him the way in which Celtic would, however shouldn’t he wait and see?
It’s simply that the temper music signifies he may not. The boulder is already operating down the hill on this one and gathering tempo quickly. The very fact Greg Taylor nonetheless hasn’t agreed a brand new contract and Alex Valle was solely introduced in from Barcelona on a season-long deal suggests Tierney was all the time being thought-about as a longer-term answer for that left-back position relying on how Arsenal noticed his future.
Pay attention, the idea of a bloke comparable to Tierney returning to the Scottish top-flight in his peak years will probably be regarded upon by many as an actual enhance to the home recreation right here. Having the chance to look at the likes of him and McGregor linking up once more in that Celtic workforce must be one thing of a pleasure.
And it little question will probably be. To a sure diploma. But, for many who perceive simply what potential these two guys possessed, and might have a look at the world with out the green-and-white tinted spectacles, it will likely be a spectacle colored indelibly by regrets and questions over what actually might have been.
For all of the cheers and the shouts and the lording it over inferior opposition, a tragedy of kinds, certainly.
Collum has criticised the VAR workforce who failed to identify a Rangers penalty in League Cup closing
Collum has his work lower out… and the likes of Maxwell make his job even more durable
THE behaviour of Scottish FA chief government Ian Maxwell this week actually does elevate extra critical questions than ever over his suitability for workplace.
What was he desirous about when writing off a transparent penalty being missed by VAR in a nationwide cup closing as ‘human nature’, nothing to get in a flap about?
He made some remark about 20 followers in a room arising with 25 opinions. Jeezy peeps. This isn’t about 20 punters in a room. It’s about three Grade One officers in a video suite being unable to see that Liam Scales pulling Vaclav Cerny’s jumper inside the realm is a spot-kick.
Maxwell, after all, is the man who launched VAR by saying it was going to be a nightmare. He additionally informed us Hampden might find yourself wanting like Stuttgart’s Mercedes Benz enviornment. And that’s simply the beginning.
In actuality, he simply comes throughout as a former Partick Thistle basic supervisor who can barely imagine how fortunate he’s to be incomes six figures a 12 months. Very similar to the remainder of us.
However in making an attempt to brush over that penalty Rangers ought to have had within the Premier Sports activities Cup closing, he simply poured oil on the flames. And we now should ask the place all that obvious ambivalence leaves him when his head of refereeing admits it isn’t sufficient simply to simply accept a mistake was made, that the whole episode was ‘unacceptable’.
SFA chief government Ian Maxwell mentioned refereeing errors are inevitable
Maxwell certainly knew Willie Collum was popping out on official SFA channels to take accountability for a catastrophe after his look on the unveiling of a grassroots initiative. It’s unthinkable that he didn’t.
So, why did he say the issues he did? Why present such a lack of information of the difficulty? Why play it down? It exhibits a complete lack of ability to deal with conditions significantly.
It is a disaster scenario we’re speaking about, the place any religion within the system – from managers to gamers to supporters – has nearly utterly evaporated.
Collum has put in main effort in his new position, however when his chief exec is writing off a disaster in a cup closing and insisting individuals simply have to simply accept errors occur, it’s clear what an inconceivable mission he has.
The usual of officiating on this nation is terrible. Collum is working with poor personnel.
And after this week’s shambles, merely admitting to errors isn’t sufficient both. Collum wants to clarify in an open discussion board what the repercussions for such ineptitude should be. How precisely he goes in regards to the long-term undertaking of turning spherical years of incompetence.
He also needs to clarify why Alan Muir was appointed VAR for a closing when he had someway did not award Celtic’s Daizen Maeda a penalty at Motherwell.
In fact, Collum is on a hiding to nothing. For all his work, he shouldn’t have been given this job. The SFA wanted somebody new, somebody totally different, with no baggage. How does Collum, for instance, lay down the legislation together with his historical past of excessive profile errors as a ref?
What is admittedly required is a correctly unbiased look into how the refereeing Outdated Boys’ Membership works.
However when the chief government’s modus operandi appears to revolve round simply making an attempt to deal with the subsequent day’s information agenda and play issues with a straight bat fairly than have a look at longer-term options – just for his codswallop to explode in his face anyway – what probability have you ever received?
