Since making his debut, Kieran has made more than 300 club appearances – including a loan spell in La Liga – and has played 47 times for the national team. So how different a player does he think he is to the one that made his debut aged 17?
“I’ve been a first-team player for 10 years, which is a long time, so I feel experienced. A lot has changed in my life as well. I moved away from home for the first time when I came here, I’ve played abroad for a year, so I enjoy learning different things and putting myself out of my comfort zone. Last year for example at Real Sociedad, where the manager doesn’t speak English, it’s a new league, a new culture. But to be honest the hardest jump was moving away from home for the first time and coming to London in 2019. I was a lot more mature by the time I went to Spain, and I’ve grown up a lot in the last few years.”
He’s also played under six different managers at club level, and three for the national team, and he says each of them has shaped the player he is now. However he believes that’s more down to the changing demands of the sport: “The game has changed, it’s getting more tactical and you need to be switched on. When you are a young player you do a lot more about what feels right at the time, but the game has definitely evolved. The first time I saw that was going into the changing room with Ronny Deila, but then the season after that, when Brendan Rodgers came in having been at Liverpool, he showed me a new version of football. That progressed every year, and the way I watched games changed too.
“I began looking more at formations, tactics and style of play. I would watch different left-backs and analyse them more myself. That’s such a big part of the game now, you need to be switched on to every scenario. The manager here is unbelievable tactically, so I want to take as much as I can, learn as much as I can because it will improve you. You learn every day.
“I was a bit more off the cuff when I started, I was up and down all the time but now I need to be more positionally aware tactically. Different teams want different styles now, and there is more emphasis on wingers to get forward and beat their man than the full-back now. So the game has changed since I made my debut.”
KT’s career has taken him in unexpected directions at times over the past decade, but does he have any plans for what might come after his playing days?
“No, nothing in particular yet”, he admits, “but I have an aspiration to open a dog shelter one day. I’m an ambassador for the SSPCA (Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) so that’s the only thing that’s a goal of mine.
“But in terms of coaching, I haven’t done any badges yet, so it’s hard to say what I will do. I think I would have an interest in it though, and maybe in future when I’m not so focused on playing, I will have more of a plan for that.”
And finally, if he could go back to the beginning of his football journey, armed with something he’d learned later in life, what would that be?
“I wouldn’t have changed anything,” he smiles. “I was young and naive when I started, but I enjoyed every single minute. That naivety can help you at that age anyway. You have no fear at 16 or 17. There is stuff I might change, like the injuries and things like that, but you can’t control that anyway, so no, I have no regrets at all.”