A lot of Celtic fans might not like Kieran Tierney anymore, but he’s starting to show what a wonderful player he is.
Tierney, a Celtic academy product, left the Hoops to join Arsenal in a £25 million deal last summer.
And despite enduring an injury-hit first season in North London, the 22-year-old is finally to starting to suggest he could be a big, big hit down South.
And let’s be honest, he hasn’t been replaced at Parkhead.
Boli Bolingoli and Greg Taylor, the two defenders signed to replace the Scot, wound up spending a lot of last season stuck behind Jonny Hayes, a winger, in the left-back slot.
Celtic need a real replacement and they should look at Leeds United’s Barry Douglas.
Douglas, a £3 million signing by the Whites in 2018, is something of a fringe player under Marcelo Bielsa these days, managing only 445 minutes of Championship football this season – that’s the equivalent of less than five full matches.
Leeds might well look to offload the Scot this summer – especially if they get back into the Premier League – and despite growing up a stone’s throw from Ibrox, Douglas, a boyhood Rangers fan, would be a brilliant option for the Bhoys.
He helped Wolves to Premier League promotion during the 2017-18 campaign, starting 39 games that year and playing alongside the type of stars who are now competing for Champions League qualification.
Is Douglas as good as Tierney? Nope, but the 30-year-old, who set up 19 goals from left-back in the two seasons before this one, is an upgrade on Bolingoli and Taylor and that has to be Neil Lennon’s goal this summer.
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