Davie Hay: Batten down the hatches for English bids, but I can’t see Kieran Tierney leaving Celtic

Fulham are the latest club to be linked with a move for him after Everton earlier in the summer, but regardless of what bids do arrive, I can’t see him leaving Celtic.

He seems so happy with life at the club, with his contract and the way he is playing. Celtic don’t need to sell, so while nothing is ever definite in football, I can’t see him leaving at all.

I can’t see Celtic wanting to lose any of their regular first-team starters, and Tierney is very much in that category.

You can’t stop speculation, but I don’t think it will happen. Maybe in time Tierney will leave the club, but for me, that’s still a fair bit down the road.

Sometimes, players are brought into Celtic with a view to moving them on for a greater transfer fee, but Tierney’s situation is completely different, as it is with James Forrest and Callum McGregor who also came through the academy. These players have Celtic in their blood.

The chances of them leaving for the first English club that shows an interest is less than a player who comes in from the outside.

Moving players on is of course part of Celtic’s transfer strategy, but these boys won’t push to leave in the same way should a big bid come in.

It is interesting that recently you haven’t heard any noises from the likes of Moussa Dembele about wanting to move on either. I accept there are two different categories of player there, ones who have come through the ranks and ones who have been brought in to be moved on at a later date.

But, for the moment, I would expect and hope that Celtic won’t be losing any key players in this window.

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