KIERAN TIERNEY has explained how he went from Celtic U20s ‘fourth or fifth’ left back to becoming the record Scottish footballing export. Tierney, who last month became a FA Cup winner with Arsenal left Celtic last summer for £25m but told Open Goal that his career could have been very different had it not been for Ronny Deila needing an extra body for training.
Speaking to the Open Goal podcast, Tierney spoke about how he feared he would need to get a job with his dad if no deal transpired from the club.
“I was fourth or fifth choice left-back for Celtic’s under-20s. We will go back. You go to school third and fourth year at St Ninians. Everybody is getting contracts or expenses.
“I got one year of expenses in the end but before that I was thinking I would need to get a job with my Dad. Gordon Young was the Motherwell head of youth at the time and he knows my Dad from Easterhouse.
“He said: ‘Kieran will start tomorrow for us against Rangers. We’ve heard he’s not getting a deal’. I don’t know if that then triggered Celtic to give me a deal because somebody offered one.
“I was never going to say no. That’s all that I ever wanted. They eventually gave me it, I went in and signed and was buzzing.
“When I was 16 Aidan McIlduff was the left-back and he went up to the 20s so I played my own age group and when you are 17 you go to Lennoxtown and it was Joe Chalmers, Cal Waters and Aidan McIlduff all ahead of me.
“Then one day they all went and travelled with the 20s and I was told by the Sports Scientist to come and train (with the top team). John Collins had said: ‘We need another body.’
Tierney trained with the top team and following the session, there was a show of respect from the Celtic manager after his performance.
“Ronny Deila loved me. After the session he came up and shook my hand. He was buzzing. I had a good session. I had just trained with the first team and it was just too good to be true at the time.
“Now and then I’d be up and down with them but still not playing. I just came up to Lennoxtown as a wee guy and nobody knew me. They knew McIlduff because he’d been playing 20s all the time. These guys were good players and I hadn’t done anything to be ahead of them.”
Tierney made 170 appearances for Celtic, scoring 8 times. In that time he won 5 League Titles, 3 Scottish Cups and 3 League Cups – a truly successful haul from a good Celtic product and a top guy too.
KT made his reputation in Glasgow with tough tackling, dominant attacks and impressive displays. The Scotland Internationalist left Celtic last year for £25m but injuries hampered him getting to his best. In recent games though, he has shown the Arsenal fans that he was a steal.
It is brilliant to see that he is performing at the highest level as it works as advertising for the quality of coaching at Celtic to encourage young players to come in to the club.
