Kieran Tierney makes emotional Celtic claim but honest about exit

A lot of Celtic fans would have hoped that Kieran Tierney would spend his entire career at Parkhead and become captain of the club when Scott Brown left. That was not to be. In fact, he departed a couple of years before Broony, joining Arsenal in a Scottish record £25 million transfer move in the summer of 2019.

Tierney became a key part of Arsenal's team as well and was considered a future captain there not too long ago. Things change fast in football though and he soon found himself out of Mikel Arteta's first-team plans.

Tierney currently finds himself on loan at Real Sociedad. He is doing well and seems to be enjoying the new experience.

At the same time though, considering how things turned out for Tierney at Arsenal, many have questioned whether he should have left Celtic in the first place. The Scot recently made an emotional admission about his connection with the Hoops but was honest about his exit at the same time.

Tierney makes emotional Celtic claim but honest about exit

As reported by Football Scotland, Tierney said about the matter:

"I signed for Celtic at seven years old. I will always be Celtic. Always, always. When I think about what I did at Celtic, where I joined the first team from the academy and here I see Martín Zubimendi and Jon Pacheco and it was the same with them at Real.

"For them, it is their club, their Celtic and everyone loves them. And for me, it was really incredible to make it to the first team because I was seven years old when I joined the club. Here you have 15 players like that. It's tremendous. I was happy at Celtic and I had already had offers from Arsenal before but I didn't want to leave.

"But when they proposed it to me again it was a lot of money, Celtic also took a significant amount and I gained the ability to play in another league, so everyone won. I was happy at Celtic, not that I wanted to leave, but it was for the best."

That's the life of a professional footballer in the modern day game. Tierney is currently having a decent time at Real Sociedad. And while he does not seem to have a long-term future at Arsenal, he can certainly continue playing at a high level in Europe.

There has been a lot of speculation about a potential Celtic return as well. But it is hard to see that happen anytime soon. Tierney is still just 26 years of age. So, expect to see him playing in a top five European league for the forseeable future.

That does not mean that he could not play for Celtic once again someday. We might have to wait a while to see that happen though, if it ever does.