Tierney was left on the bench to face Greece but what does it mean for his long-term international prospects?
22:30, 21 Mar 2025
Kieran Tierney was on the bench for Scotland(Image: SNS Group)
It is to be hoped Kieran Tierney and Steve Clarke can get over this blip in their relationship.
But at this point it can’t be said with any great certainty they will.
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Deep down the Scotland boss would have known he was risking more than just a potential backlash from back home when he chose to leave the Arsenal full-back out of his starting line-up in Athens.
He was effectively putting Tierney’s unswerving commitment to the cause on the line too.
At 27 there certainly ought to be plenty of years left in a Scotland shirt for the prodigal son who will complete an emotional return to Celtic in the coming months.
But exactly how he feels about the national team and its manager may now have to be factored into the equation where Tierney’s international career is concerned.
If his nose was put sufficiently out of joint by being dumped on Clarke’s bench for the first leg of Scotland’s Nations League play-off against Greece, then Tierney may start to wonder if he’s ever going to be fully appreciated again from this point forward.
And given the cold-shoulder treatment he’s been subjected to at the Emirates by Mikel Arteta over these last couple of years, could he really be blamed for feeling a bit unloved? Perhaps even slightly resentful?
Let’s not forget, we are dealing here with a player who has put his body through the wringer for club and country ever since bursting onto the scene at Parkhead all these years ago. Few have been prepared to go through so much suffering in order to pull on a shirt, whichever its colour.
But Clarke made clear the scale of Tierney’s importance to Scotland’s side when he redesigned an entire formation for the sole purpose of including Tierney and Andy Robertson in the same starting XI.
It was a bespoke arrangement that copper-bottomed Tierney’s status as a player who, when available, simply had to be selected.
Tierney (left, with Andy Robertson) hopes to be celebrating in a Scotland jersey tonight
Andy Robertson celebrates with Kieran Tierney after beating Georgia at Hampden(Image: SNS Group)
And no matter how you care to slice it, all of that changed the other night when Clarke chose to stick with the back four which suited his side so well throughout its first campaign in the top flight of this competition. And left Tierney among the reinforcements.
Clarke said later that he had pretty much made his mind up on this weighty decision at the start of the week but added that he wanted to take a look for himself on the training pitch before setting his tactical plan in stone.
It must be said also the manager was proved absolutely correct to stick to his guns as Scotland got in and out of the ancient capital with a win for the ages.
It was a big call – a horribly awkward one to have to handle. But the 1-0 first-leg win was all the justification Clarke required.
It was nine months since Tierney limped out of his team at the Euros in Germany and over that time Clarke has had to find a way of adjusting to being without him. He found it. It worked. And now he seems likely to stick with it, especially given the nature of Scotland’s performance against the Greeks.
For 45 minutes his players dovetailed perfectly as a unit all over the pitch and the calmness and composure of their play did not suggest they were missing a key component.
They could have been two or three up before the interval against a side soaring up through Europe’s ranks over the last couple of seasons.
Then after the break, when the Greeks found their own A game, Scotland resisted them as if their lives depended on it.
Clarke’s back four was bordering on the heroic with Grant Hanley, John Souttar and Tony Ralston throwing themselves head first at anything that came even remotely close to getting in their way.
Clarke was understandably thrilled for them – and especially Birmingham fringe man Hanley and Celtic bench-warmer Ralston who have been consistently playing second fiddle at their respective clubs since the start of the campaign.
But while Tierney falls into the same category only with one of the most talented club sides in British football, he was the man to miss out. Which is likely to be another source of potential frustration.
Clarke said: “Obviously you wait to see how it would go in training but I was pretty clear in my mind how we would do it. I was conscious of the fact Andy Robertson was on a yellow card and if he got a yellow tonight he could not play Sunday.
Scotland boss Steve Clarke speaks to media
Scotland boss Steve Clarke speaks to media
“So if I started Kieran then he suddenly had to play in back-to-back games for Kieran it could have een an issue for us. That was also in my mind.”
And yet Liverpool skipper Robertson avoided going into the referee’s little back book, which means Clarke will be back making the same decision all over again for Sunday’s second leg at Hampden.
Others too will come into consideration with, in particular, Ryan Christie now free of suspension. But the whole Tierney question will continue to demand the most focus and the ramifications it carries will have been clawing away at the back of Clarke’s mind as he stepped on to the charter flight back to Glasgow yesterday evening.
He certainly won’t wish to belittle Tierney’s previous contributions or to cast doubt over the extent of his importance going forward.
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But that’s how it could be misconstrued – and especially if there are other voices involved in all of this whose opinions are valued by the player.
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers, for example, will have to be listened to. He has pushed his own board into financing a contract fit for a player from the top end of England’s Premier League but he knows too that Tierney’s body has a nasty habit of breaking down on him.
Having held similar discussions with the likes of Scott Brown and Callum McGregor before both of his captains chose to step away from the international scene, Rodgers may influence what comes next in Tierney’s case too.