GARY KEOWN: Why the thought of Kieran Tierney and Callum McGregor being back together at Celtic is a matter of sadness – not celebration

The very thought of it has Celtic supporters giddy with delight. Kieran Tierney back in the Hoops, back in front of the Green Brigade with the loudhailer, back tearing up that left flank like the days of old.

The rumour mill has been buzzing over a return for the Scotland international since he was spotted chatting with manager Brendan Rodgers at a gala event for the club’s charity foundation in London in October – and the chances of it coming to pass look to be increasing by the day.

Rodgers didn’t exactly deny an interest when quizzed on Friday. It is commonly established now that the likelihood of putting together a deal is being actively investigated. There seems a keenness on all sides to properly get down to business now that Arsenal have confirmed they will not be triggering a one-year contract extension for the defender in the summer.

It’s a big story, all right. An exciting one. Yet, the prospect of a generational talent such as Tierney going back to Celtic at the age of 27 is a matter of sadness rather than celebration.

Indeed, the idea of him going back to effectively end his career at Celtic Park alongside fellow academy graduate Callum McGregor feels nothing short of tragic.

Both men are hugely talented players. Both, particularly if Tierney re-signs, will go down as figures of real importance in the team’s recent history. But looking beyond the partisan and parochial nature of the Scottish game, the feeling remains that both should be doing more with their careers than living as big fish in the stagnant, whiffy pond of the SPFL.

That boat has sailed for McGregor, of course. He had his chance to go when Rodgers ended his first stay in Paradise to head south to Leicester City in 2019 and was clearly happy with his lot in Glasgow.

His reward, at some point over the next season or two, will come in the form of being crowned Celtic’s most decorated player of all-time.

It will be a special achievement, for sure. Something to dine out on down the decades. A matter of justifiable personal pride.

McGregor has been a wonderful servant to Celtic, a fantastic ambassador and face of the club, and has to be understood for putting personal contentment ahead of chasing dreams in England or abroad.

Yet, it is utterly impossible to reflect on the 31-year-old’s time in the game and not wonder how far he could really have gone.

Rodgers wanted to take him to Leicester, have him as on-field general imposing his style of play on the rest of the team. He has since stated his belief that McGregor – such an intelligent player with such positional, tactical sense – had everything in his locker to go on and play for one of the big six teams in the English Premier League.

Tierney’s time at Arsenal has been interrupted by fitness problems

That’s open to debate, of course, but it would have been nice to see him try. Instead, for all his medals and memories, that big question of how far he could have gone will always linger.

In that summer of 2019, everything seemed possible for him and Tierney. The world was at their feet.

At 26 years old, McGregor was at the perfect stage of his career to take the great leap forward. As it was, Tierney ended up the one to have the door to the promised land of the English top-flight opened to him with a £25million move to Arsenal.

It’s where the story of the two players differs. Tierney *did* have a go. In the end, largely through injuries, it hasn’t quite worked out as planned. The move south also gave him a different experience in going to Real Sociedad on loan last season, even though fitness issues cut that short too.

It is easy to see why Tierney would be open to returning to Parkhead. He has stated in the past that leaving the club he supports to go to Arsenal was a decision that kept him awake at night.

He’s on record as stating that playing for Celtic is ‘the ultimate’. He misses the place. Loves it. He has challenged himself at a high level, satisfied that urge, and may just feel the time is right – paycut or no paycut – to come back to the place he feels and calls home.

It is just that he is still only 27, for crying out loud. There will surely be interest from other clubs when he is free to agree a pre-contract in January.

If he can get himself into good physical shape and find a way to put the injury issues that have dogged him to bed, there could well be other special adventures out there for him. Celtic will always be there. Perhaps a stop-off point after one more investigation of what might exist in other worlds. One more shot at seeing where his talent might yet take him.

Going back to Glasgow would just feel like some kind of admission of defeat, an acceptance that he tried his luck at the top level and it didn’t quite deliver, that his body maybe wasn’t up to it and needs a less exacting environment in which to operate.

Who knows what else might be offered to him, though? Maybe nothing will excite him the way Celtic would, but shouldn’t he wait and see?

It’s just that the mood music indicates he might not. The boulder is already running down the hill on this one and gathering pace rapidly. The fact Greg Taylor still hasn’t agreed a new contract and Alex Valle was only brought in from Barcelona on a season-long deal suggests Tierney was always being considered as a longer-term solution for that left-back role depending on how Arsenal saw his future.

Listen, the concept of a bloke such as Tierney returning to the Scottish top-flight in his peak years will be looked upon by many as a real boost to the domestic game here. Having the opportunity to watch the likes of him and McGregor linking up again in that Celtic team should be something of a pleasure.

And it no doubt will be. To a certain degree. Yet, for those who understand just what potential these two guys possessed, and can look at the world without the green-and-white tinted spectacles, it will be a spectacle coloured indelibly by regrets and questions over what truly could have been.

For all the cheers and the shouts and the lording it over inferior opposition, a tragedy of sorts, indeed.

Collum has criticised the VAR team who failed to spot a Rangers penalty in League Cup final

Collum has his work cut out… and the likes of Maxwell make his job even harder

THE behaviour of Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell this week really does raise more serious questions than ever over his suitability for office.

What was he thinking about when writing off a clear penalty being missed by VAR in a national cup final as ‘human nature’, nothing to get in a flap about?

He made some comment about 20 fans in a room coming up with 25 opinions. Jeezy peeps. This is not about 20 punters in a room. It’s about three Grade One officials in a video suite being unable to see that Liam Scales pulling Vaclav Cerny’s jumper inside the area is a spot-kick.

Maxwell, of course, is the guy who introduced VAR by saying it was going to be a nightmare. He also told us Hampden could end up looking like Stuttgart’s Mercedes Benz arena. And that’s just the start.

In reality, he just comes across as a former Partick Thistle general manager who can barely believe how lucky he is to be earning six figures a year. Much like the rest of us.

But in trying to brush over that penalty Rangers should have had in the Premier Sports Cup final, he just poured oil on the flames. And we now have to ask where all that apparent ambivalence leaves him when his head of refereeing admits it is not enough just to accept a mistake was made, that the entire episode was ‘unacceptable’.

SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell said refereeing errors are inevitable

Maxwell surely knew Willie Collum was coming out on official SFA channels to take responsibility for a disaster after his appearance at the unveiling of a grassroots initiative. It is unthinkable that he didn’t.

So, why did he say the things he did? Why show such a lack of understanding of the issue? Why play it down? It shows a total inability to handle situations seriously.

This is a crisis situation we are talking about, where any faith in the system – from managers to players to supporters – has almost completely evaporated.

Collum has put in major effort in his new role, but when his chief exec is writing off a catastrophe in a cup final and insisting people just have to accept mistakes happen, it is clear what an impossible mission he has.

The standard of officiating in this country is awful. Collum is working with poor personnel.

And after this week’s shambles, simply admitting to errors isn’t enough either. Collum needs to explain in an open forum what the repercussions for such ineptitude must be. How exactly he goes about the long-term project of turning round years of incompetence.

He should also explain why Alan Muir was appointed VAR for a final when he had somehow failed to award Celtic’s Daizen Maeda a penalty at Motherwell.

In truth, Collum is on a hiding to nothing. For all his work, he shouldn’t have been given this job. The SFA needed someone new, someone different, with no baggage. How does Collum, for example, lay down the law with his history of high profile mistakes as a ref?

What is really required is a properly independent look into how the refereeing Old Boys’ Club works.

But when the chief executive’s way of working seems to revolve around just trying to handle the next day’s news agenda and play things with a straight bat rather than look at longer-term solutions – only for his codswallop to blow up in his face anyway – what chance have you got?