Humour and warmth, hard-work and a bit of humility.
For the second year on the bounce, Kieran Tierney collected the PFA award from his fellow professionals as the best young player in the country; a trawl through the history books suggests you have to go all the way back to when Craig Levein was scrubbing boots in 1985 and 1986 to find the last player to claim the accolade successively.
“It is a privilege,” he said. “I don’t know how many players have done it, but for me it’s an honour. It’s a surprise for me to win it this year because the competition was brilliant and anyone could have won it. Maybe the long spell I was out is why people voted for me because I’ve come back and still looked as strong as I was or maybe even stronger.”
Tierney’s off-field darts jousts with team-mate Scott Sinclair have provided light relief away from the pressures of the day job, although one cannot entirely fault the aim of either player this season with consistent performances that have more than just hit their target.
“I was on a slump of defeats, so I went and bought a dartboard for my house,” said Tierney. “I hadn’t told anybody, but I’ll come back next season like Gary Anderson.”
It seems unlikely given the FA’s reluctance to look north of the border but the duo could yet face one another in a far more intense occasion that messing around a dartboard. England are due at Hampden on June 10th, with Tierney a cert to play against Gareth Southgate’s side in the FIFA World Cup qualifier.
Sinclair’s performances this season have garnered recognition in Scotland but whether it is sufficient to knock on the England door would still appear unlikely. Not that Tierney has discounted it.
“I think he does deserve a call-up,” said the 19-year-old. “I think a winger is one of the hardest positions to have consistency and he’s shown it. The amount of goals he scores and the amount he creates is incredible.
“I don’t know how it would turn out if we came face-to-face against each other. I’d need to catch him first!”
Tierney played on the opposite side at right-back in his last outing for the national team and he will have no complaints if he is asked to use his weaker side again.
“If I’m in the squad and I’m told to play there, I’m happy,” he insisted. “I’ll play wherever the manager thinks I’ll help the team. It’s great from the manager to put that amount of trust in me as a young boy.
“It was a must-win game and he played a 19-year-old at right-back. I’m sure a lot of people doubted that and doubted me, but it paid off.”
Having firmly cemented his reputation last season in a debut campaign under Ronny Deila, Tierney has admitted that he was well aware he had to prove himself all over again as people questioned whether he could continue on the same upward trajectory. The answer has been an emphatic affirmative.
“Last year people asked me if I was scared of second-season syndrome,” he said.
“It has happened to players before, but you try to blank that sort of thing out. If you let it get to you and think about things like that too much, the mental side will get to you. But I work under a great manager and have great team-mates who have helped me win this award. I still have a long way to go.”
It says much about Tierney’s standing that he would be regarded as something of a mentor now for further players emerging from the club’s academy. Tony Ralston and Michael Johnston were given their debuts last weekend with both teenagers putting in decent displays.
Sheepish at the mention of dispensing advice to Ralston who also plays in the same position as him, Tierney would only remark: “I don’t think he would be asking me anything. I’ve still got too much to learn. He would be asking the likes of Mikael Lustig and Cristian Gamboa for full-back tips.”
The learning curve continues.
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