James Forrest’s hat eating and the Kieran Tierney blame game

I remember joking with James Forrest, editor on the excellent Celtic Blog, after he had stated rather forcefully that he would eat his hat if Celtic signed Scott Allan from Hibs. At that stage it was a done deal but the news was a day or two away from getting out. I tried to tip James off but he was having absolutely none of it and remained adamant that the signing would not happen. He took it in good spirits afterwards and it was all rather amusing.

Yesterday he wrote another article which reminded me of the Scott Allan incident. James stated that Celtic must consider banning a tabloid newspaper after it carried “lies” about Kieran Tierney yesterday.

In a perfect world James will be 100% correct and Celtic should follow his advice. The world isn’t perfect though and sadly it is looking increasingly likely that Kieran Tierney will not be a Celtic player for much longer.

Indeed there is a sub plot already emerging – something that we spoke about yesterday afternoon HERE

David Potter had written a plea to Celtic not to sell KT and this was immediately the subject of some very informed chat on social media. The ‘Celtic view’ on the story was being pushed – the player had people advising him in his ear telling him that it was time to go and that Tierney himself now wanted to leave. It wasn’t Celtic pushing the deal but they couldn’t keep an unhappy player etc.

Tierney would be getting a 500% increase in salary and it would be life changing for him.

This ties in with what the manager said a few days earlier – Brendan said it would be morally wrong to keep a player who had a chance to go to the Premier League who wanted to go, careers are short for players, it is a business for them, look at John Kennedy – one bad tackle and it can all be over – and so on.

The Celtic narrative was that they couldn’t be expected to keep the player if he wanted to go provided the club get their transfer valuation met.

A second narrative is emerging though, apparently from those closer to the player in Lanarkshire. This version is that Celtic have told the player – who does not want to go – that they cannot refuse a £30million bid from England and therefore reluctantly they think he should go.

Who do we believe?

Well we’d love it if James Forrest was correct but unfortunately that is a long shot on this occasion.

Celtic want to sell or Tierney wants to go is anybody’s guess at this stage.

In the end it won’t really matter.

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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