Declan Rice’s comments on ‘very special’ wonderkid bodes well for Celtic’s transfer dream

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The madness of the January transfer window is about to begin.

Celtic are expected to be busy and ready to enhance the squad, even though Brendan Rodgers is dominating in Scotland and looking strong in the Champions League.

The depth in quality Rodgers has to choose from has probably been as deep as it has ever been – even from his first spell as manager.

One man who shone for the Celtic boss in his first spell was Kieran Tierney, before he secured a big-money transfer to Arsenal in 2019.

The 27-year-old has served the Gunners well, but injuries have hit him hard and it has stagnated his career in recent years under Mikel Arteta.

Celtic fans were delighted to see Tierney in action when he made his six-month return during Arsenal’s League Cup quarter-final win over Crystal Palace before Christmas.

But the rise of a wonderkid at the Emirates has probably now pushed the Scotsman further out of the door and it bodes well for those in green and white.

Declan Rice lauds Arsenal teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly

Arsenal have had injury issues to their backline and it has forced the manager to play teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly.

But, even though an out-and-out left-back is available on the bench in the form of Tierney, the 18-year-old continues to start and those 69 minutes the Celtic hero earned in the League Cup are the only minutes he has played thus far.

This surely indicates that Tierney’s time is up and he will be heading for the exit door, with Declan Rice lauding and applauding the ‘very special’ talents of Lewis-Skelly, as posted by Fabrizio Romano on Twitter.

Lewis-Skelly has started the last three Premier League matches, picking up seven points and two clean sheets, as well as starting the Champions League win over Monaco, all whilst Tierney watches on.

Many Celtic fans will be hoping this makes it easier for Arsenal to allow Tierney to go because they have this teenage talent looking and playing like a seasoned pro.

“Myles Lewis-Skelly can go to the top, this kid is just special, very special,” said Rice.

“For an 18-year-old to be that good, that comfortable, that strong – it was like he was built in a lab!”. “I said that to him the other day, it’s just ridiculous how good he is”.

What has Tierney previously said about returning to Celtic?

Now that Tierney is back on the training pitch, he surely wouldn’t want to be warming the bench because he has spent far too much time in the treatment room.

If he does look and push for a move in January, then it opens the door for a return to his boyhood club.

Only as early as April, Tierney was asked about going back to where it all started, when pressed on the matter by talkSPORT, and he didn’t rule it out.

“Who knows?,” responded Tierney. “You never know in football; it’s a connection that I’ll always have, somewhere I imagine I’ll always be linked with if I’m to move from any club, so you never know.”