Having failed in their attempts to sell Moussa Dembele, the Scottish sports media have shifted their attentions to Keiran tierney, the left back who came through the ranks at Celtic to command a first team place before his injury.
Manchester Utd lead the way amongst predicted destinations, and to seal the deal-or at the very least turn the Celts head, the Record have drafted in none other than Matthew Knox…
Celtic star Kieran Tierney could have massive dilemma to
solve if Manchester United want him reckons starlet Matthew
Knox
No, I don’t know either.
Back in December, the Daily Mail reported;
Manchester United have invited Livingston’s teenage striker Matthew Knox for a third trial next week.
The 17-year-old striker last visited Carrington in August and has also paid visits to Liverpool, Tottenham, Everton and Nottingham Forest.
He became the club’s youngest ever player at 16 on Boxing Day last year and has made seven appearances for the Scottish third tier side this season.
Rangers made a £75,000 bid for him in the summer, but the Scottish League One side rejected the offer.
United are now expected to table an improved offer to test Livingston’s resolve with a bid of around £150,000 anticipated when the transfer window opens – if he takes his third chance to impress.
Knox was tied down to a two-and-a-half-year deal earlier this month, but Livingston have allowed him to will train with the likes Zlatan Ibrahimovic and are unlikely to stand in his way.
Ah, it appears the reason that the Record have asked what Knox thinks of the potential dilemma facing Tierney is that he too was faced with a similar choice. Champions League football , medals and living the dream of playing for his heroes at Livingston or a spell training with Manchester Uniteds reserves.
He must be good, however, as “rangers ” bid £75,000 for him back then, which amounts to nearly half their total transfer budget, and therefore they must think he’s worth it.
Anyway, he had some advice for Tierney…
“I saw the story in Record Sport about Kieran being linked with Manchester United and £10m for a 19-year-old is lot of money. He’s a first team regular at Celtic, he’s played in the Champions League and is a starter for Scotland so it’s a massive decision.
“Would he be prepared to go from being a first team player at Celtic to being a Manchester United under-23 player with the ambition of playing in the first team? That’s the question he’ll have to ask himself.
I’m quite sure that a place in Manchester Uniteds reserves will be exactly how the English based club sell themselves to Tierney, and boy will that be hard for him to turn down…
“It would take a bit of convincing to get him to go and play youth football again.
“Moving to a club like Manchester United is every player’s dream and when that door opens it’s almost impossible to say no. But he’s been playing for Celtic in front of all of those fans every week at Celtic Park and that’s a dream come true as well if I’m being honest.”
Knox appears to do a lot of dreaming, which will be why the Record chose to ask him for his opinion, as they tend to ignore reality as well.
“Kieran’s been at Celtic for all of those years so he’d find Manchester United a lot different.
Elevated to some sort of sage now, Knox is being consulted as though he’s Paddy Crerand, or Lou Macari
So how did his time at Manchester United turn out ?
Knox has been invited down to United’s Carrington training base three times in the last 12 months as Jose Mourinho’s coaching staff assess a talent which has also seen trials spells at Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham.
He’s still at Livingston, then.
Neil Cameron, in the Herald Groups National , was a little more realistic, and we’ll return to that paper in a moment, as it is starting to look a little out of place with the rest of the tat on sale up there.
On Tierney, he wrote..
KIERAN Tierney has pledged his immediate future to Celtic, in the wake of claims which emerged from Manchester that José Mourinho was considering a summer bid for Scottish football’s brightest young star, writes Neil Cameron.
We understand that the 19-year-old has absolutely no interest in jumping at the first big money offer from an English Premiership club, even if Manchester United or Arsenal, who have sent scouts to several Celtic matches this season, make a move during the next transfer window.
Tierney signed a five-year deal a little over a year ago and while last season’s Player of the Year may well be tempted in the future to try his luck south of the border, that’s not going to happen for years to come.
While we know thats the case, it’s refreshing to hear someone else say it.
The reason the National is looking out of place is the publication of this revealing piece..
Written by Martin Hannan, it mentions the upcoming Supreme Court Case against David Murrays version of Rangers, and demands that should the entrepreneur ( hah, entrepreneur my arse ) be found guilty, then he should lose his knighthood and the club should have their titles stripped…
The consequences should be inevitable. The Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Professional Football League should convene a new inquiry into the nature of EBTs and their usage, then punish all those who used them illegally, if necessary by removing trophies and titles. Remember that Lord Nimmo Smith’s Commission proceeded on the basis that EBTs were legitimate – if the Supreme Court says otherwise then a new Commission has to judge the football case again, because cheating the taxman is cheating football, too.
If the Supreme Court finds against him, Sir David Murray also should be stripped of his knighthood.
Then theres a startling revelation-not startling in itself, but startling that a newspaper has revealed it…
To believe some people who opine, usually anonymously on social media and the blogosphere, the Scottish sportswriting mob ignored all this ‘Rangers in trouble’ stuff right through the Murray era and into Green’s bonkers time at Ibrox.
I can assure you, they did not. I was part of that ‘mob’ at the time, and can roughly say that we divided into three parts – those who hadn’t a clue what was going on as they came from a pure sports background and couldn’t tell the difference between a balance sheet and a team sheet; those who were intimidated and bullied by a Rangers that did everything it could to put a lid on scandals; and those whose editors did not want to know, because they feared the loss of Rangers-supporting readers and court action – I’d say the vast majority of us were in that category, as The National wasn’t around to work for back then.
We had a man hanging around outside the National offices trying to talk to Hannan. We didn’t see him as such, but we do have an artists impression of him popping out for a sandwich
It could mean there is a shift in general policy throughout the SMSM, but that would be to belittle the courage shown by the National in breaking ranks and pointing the finger at where the blame really lies. As opposed to the rest of them, who really lie.
Read the full article, at the link above. Its worth it.
As for the National, I’ve got this story about corruption and collusion at the SFA , and wondered if you are ready for the next step….
Its still January, so we’ve still got that chilly blast of air coming through the transfer window, and a couple more Celts look set to leave.
It’s goodbye to Efe Ambrose, who looks set to join Charlie Mulgrew at Blackburn, though only on loan until the end of the season, when the English side could get him for nothing if he does well. The player is said to desire a British passport, and so will snub any moves to the European mainland.
For Blackburn fans, they will be getting a player short on confidence, but high on experience and ability.
I hope it works out for him.
Another who could be gone by the end of the week, again on laon, is GAry Mackay Steven, as Dundee United , according to one of the papers up there, are about to announce a loan deal.
Manager Ray McKinnon revealed last week he’d been working on a deal that would “excite” fans but has steadfastly refused to reveal who his target was.
Yesterday, United were sticking to that stance. But the Tele understands it is Mackay-Steven and, if all goes to plan, he will be back at the club by the end of the week.
The Express says that Celtic will snub the deal, so he’s probably already on the train north.
That means he will be in direct opposition to Kris Commons for the First division title, which will add a bit of spice to a duel that really didn’t need it.
With six new balance tops already in the bag, the company will tighten its grip on the pockets of fans again when the fitieth anniversary of Lisbon tops-for next season-are announced.
Is this one of them ?
Or, having sold us the pup that was the pink strip, will they continue to show they have absolutely no idea of their market with something like this..
In court yesterday James Doleman witnessed the first day of events in the Kinloch v Coral case…
Kinloch is the guy who put money on Rangers to be relegated, Coral are the bookies who won’t pay up. Have they said it’s because the Huns are deid ?
Not yet, it seems, as they too don’t want to lose the blue pound.
They reconvene today at 10am, give James a follow on twitter to keep an eye on events, as you won’t see it in the papers.
You can have a wee sing song, courtesy of GC on twitter, while you read it…
I really hope that catches on.
Picture yesterday…
Caption. Chaos erupts after James Tranyor takes his seat at the front of the Zepplin.
Picture today..
Finally, a greta big hug and a thank you to “Margot”, who has sent a large cheque to the Lennon CSC for the sleep out in aid of the Macari Homeless shelter. It was so large it attracted the attention of a couple of chancers, who have been hanging outside my door for two days now
She sent the cheque because the link i gave refuses to work, so here’s one that does for anyone else who wants to help out a fine project for those who do need help…
This one definitely works..I had nothing to do with it.
