Kieran Tierney has credited Celtic for leaving Ibrox with a point on Sunday as he backed his old club to pip Rangers to the Scottish Premiership title.
Tierney, 26, has been watching from afar since leaving in 2019 and reckons the 3-3 Glasgow Derby thriller last weekend was one of the best matches he's seen.
The result kept a single point between the city rivals in the league table with season soon coming to a climax.
Celtic fans weren't permitted inside the stadium, which Tierney points to making the outcome at Ibrox more credible despite Brendan Rodgers' men squandering a 2-0 lead.
In an interview with talkSPORT, the former Hoops left-back said: "Yep, one of the best games I've watched in a long time. I'm absolutely devastated we couldn't hold on to the victory, but to be honest, to go there with no fans and come away with a point and to have the title in your hands still is kind of all you can ask for after a game like that."
READ MORE: Oasis singer provides Scottish Premiership title prediction
The Scotland international was then probed whether he's still as emotionally invested in Celtic, having departed the club almost five years ago.
He is currently on loan at La Liga side Real Sociedad after falling down the pecking order at Arsenal, yet clearly hasn't lost his passion for his boyhood heroes.
"Yeah, 100 per cent," he replied. "I'm still a Celtic fan and you can go back to being the fan again because when you are a player, you've got to try and detach yourself a little bit and take some of the emotions out it.
"But when I don't play there now, I can be the fan I was when growing up which is nice."
It's a title race that looks to be going down to the wire, and Tierney reckons Celtic's know-how to find results in big games could prove pivotal.
He continued: "Well I really hope it's Celtic. I think Celtic have got a track record of turning up in the big, big games. I don't know how many in the last derbies Celtic have won but I'm sure the percentage is in their favour.
"I think as long as they keep on doing what they are doing because I think the last few weeks they have been playing brilliant, with a couple of injuries, big injuries in the squad as well. So, with people coming back and the form that we are on this now, I think it will look good hopefully."
Broadcaster Jim White concluded the chat by asking Tierney if he sees his career taking him back to Celtic Park in the future.
"Who knows," he smiled. "You never know in football, it's a connection that I will always have and it's somewhere I will imagine I will always be linked with if I were to move from any club.
"So, you know never know."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel