By support

1st Jul, 2018 | 10:51am

'Nothing changes' - Rodgers expects Celtic 21y/o to maintain his form as speculation rages

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has claimed that Kieran Tierney’s performances won’t be affected by the constant speculation about his future.

The 21-year-old made the error which lead to Bohemians’ goal in the 1-0 friendly win over the Hoops on Saturday, amid reports from the Daily Record which claim that the Hoops are set to turn down Everton’s £25million offer for the Scotland international.

With the Champions League qualifiers less than a fortnight away, Rodgers believes that Tierney won’t be distracted by the rumours.

“He is very committed and nothing changes” Rodgers said, as quoted by the Express.

“He is a good boy and I had a long chat with him just about keeping his focus really.

“These things you can’t control.

“If something comes in then fine but he just needs to go out and concentrate because it is an important part of the season as we get ready for a long season ahead.”

Football Insider verdict

This is very good management from Brendan Rodgers, as he expects Kieran Tierney to keep up his very high level of performance during this spell of speculation. The fact that he had a ‘chat’ with the player is quite intriguing, as it perhaps suggests that the left-back wasn’t right during the pre-season friendly, which may have lead to his mistake which resulted in a Bohemians goal. Whatever the reason for the chat, the Hoops need the 21-year-old to be at his very best if they are to reach the Champions League group stages for the third season in a row. Which is why the rumours about the player have come at a bad time, as all the Hoops should be concentrating on is the campaign to reach the group stages once more. Unfortunately for Tierney and Rodgers, it looks like the next few weeks are going to be dominated with speculation about the Scotland international’s future, and Rodgers’ comments to Tierney show that he is well aware of that.

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