More than 25 million reasons why Celtic want Kieran Tierney to leave

You're already fed up hearing about Kieran Tierney leaving Celtic and so am I – but some issues need to be addressed.

Many, in recent days have recalled the time when Kenny Dalglish – King Kenny, as he was known by then – was sold to Liverpool on the eve of the 1977-78 season and the disastrous impact that had on morale.

Mike Maher conveys much of the atmosphere at the time, in the excellent Celtic Star Mag:

The estimable David Potter, writing for the same site, makes references to the issue in two articles, which are somewhat odd as the first reads to me as a crudely sarcastic attack on fans who are upset at the prospect of selling Kieran (I struggle to believe that Mr Potter believes that the double treble would be rendered meaningless or that The Rangers would be likely to win the Scottish Premier League). A second piece seems to demand that Kieran be kept with sincerity. (Perhaps a rethink by Mr Potter.)

Kieran, already the Prince of Celtic Park, has no less potential than Kenny to assume the status of an all-time icon, though the circumstances of Kenny's departure were somewhat different.

As Mike Maher points out, losing Kenny was very clearly a sign that Celtic could no longer keep the best players and there have been few exceptions since then – Henrik Larsson and Scott Brown being two of a small number.

But this is the reality we have lived with since that summer's day in 1977 when Jock Stein was reported to have said, “Kenny, is there anything I can say to change your mind?”, before Kenny uttered a simple, “No,” and signed the contract.

Well aware of the coup in replacing Kevin Keegan with an even better player and the blow to Celtic – albeit for a British record transfer fee of £440,000 – Bob Paisley famously said: “We'd better get out of here before these people realise what we've done.”

(Accounting for inflation, that fee would be approximately £1.9m today.)

But the conditions at Celtic are very different today.

One fact almost lost in the annals of time is that, just prior to 1977-78, Celtic were the bookies' favourites to win the European Cup. Today, we are by no means certain of qualifying for the group stages of the Champions League.

Losing Kieran would make that extremely difficult task, a whole lot harder, particularly as he is the only defender in whom we can all be confident in the most vital games against quality opposition.

On the other hand, the rumoured £25m fee, would go a very long way towards compensating the club for any failure to reach the group stages of Europe's top tournament so it is likely that Peter Lawwell would consider a sale to be a “no-brainer”.

We all know what that money could do for Celtic – buy several more sets of fancy floodlights, for example.

But, seriously, huge money is tempting for Celtic as we operate on a very different financial level from clubs in England.

There would also be the potential added bonus (not the one that goes into Peter's bank account – that one is guaranteed) that players like Moussa Dembele would see the move as encouraging and tempt them to sign on, confident of being released for a big-money move in the future.

That's all very well and, in some regards, positive but what does it really say about Celtic as a football club?

To my mind, it says that nothing has really changed. That the prevailing ethos is to keep just ahead of the domestic competition and see Europe as an occasional windfall.

But what then of Brendan's stated aim of making Celtic a side that can compete in the Champions League? Though we did make it into third place last season for one Europa League round, it is clear that there was little, if any, progress on the European stage.

In fact, you can make a very strong case for saying that Celtic finished last season a weaker side than 12 months previously as the league tables showed.

So, does Brendan want to sell Kieran (and the sincerity of his comments that a club has a moral duty to young players is a given, and his track bears that out)?

There are, as usual at Celtic, more questions than answers.

If the rumoured discussions are true, that can only be because:

a. A release clause has been activated, allowing Kieran to talk to other clubs

or

b. Because Celtic gave other clubs permission to talk to Kieran.

By the rules, there are no other circumstances under which direct contact could be made between the player, who is under contract, and any other club.

If the answer is “a”, we can forget any fanciful talk of the fee going any higher as every club will know that to be the maximum they have to pay. It will also, though, be the figure agreed by Celtic when Kieran extended his contract, signing a six-year deal while just 12 months into an existing five-year contract.

If the answer is “b”, then Celtic are actively trying to sell a player who has only ever indicated his joy at being a Celtic player and his desire to remain.

So let the insinuations against Kieran, leaking from supposedly “in the know” Celtic people and apparently emanating from the club, end now.

Kieran has been an exemplary Celtic player in his years at the club. No amount of accusations of “greed” or claims that Brendan is “disgusted” change that and some of those issuing them should hang their heads in shame.

As a stupid football fan, I want Kieran to stay but I will wish him well if he leaves and hope that he collects the biggest gongs that football has to offer. He deserves everything good that the game can give.

This is not some Islam-Feruz-type of situation and nor has he, for example, signed a one-year deal before promptly opting for a hernia op to ready himself for a move elsewhere, while Celtic paid his salary.

This is a young man who has dedicated himself to his sport and to Celtic but, to some cynics, that counts for nothing when the aim is to protect certain executives by directing fans' ire at the player.

If we do get £25m to add to the £7m for Armstrong and the tens of millions from two Champions League campaigns, we can be fairly sure that a small chunk of that cash will go towards more diamond-mining, hoping to uncover the next mega-profit player as we struggle for respectability in Europe.

Some of those will flop, as several signings have done, and the few gems will be polished up to realise their full market value.

Celtic will continue to tread water in Europe while, hopefully (but not certainly), dominating in Scotland, prompting ironic questions of, “What more do you want?” and continued derisive remarks about our Scottish pub league.

As Hiram Johnson once said, “The first casualty, when war comes, is truth.” The same can be said of transfer speculation.--