Celtic lifted their first trophy of the 2024/25 campaign on Sunday after they beat Rangers 5-4 on penalties in the final of the League Cup at Hampden Park.
It was not an easy afternoon for the Hoops in the national stadium as they had to battle from 1-0 down at half-time to take the lead and then were twice pegged back to make it 2-2 and 3-3 before winning on penalties.
Greg Taylor was one player who underperformed, despite scoring, as it was his huge error that led to the opening goal from Nedim Bajrami in the first half.
The Scotland international was criticised for his performance, with fan account ‘Everthing Celtic’ on X hoping for him to be sold next month, and the Hoops may be wishing that they still had Kieran Tierney in their ranks.
Kieran Tierney's time at Celtic
The Arsenal defender came up through the ranks in Glasgow and went straight into the first-team set-up at Celtic without any loan moves elsewhere to develop.
Tierney went on to make 170 appearances in all competitions for the Scottish giants, and contributed with eight goals and 37 assists in that time, winning five Scottish Premiership titles.
As you can see in the graphic above, he was then sold to Arsenal for a fee of £25m in the summer of 2019, which led to Taylor’s arrival from Kilmarnock.
Celtic may have thought they had found their next Kieran Tierney, though, when Adam Montgomery came through the ranks the season after, in the 2020/21 campaign.
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Montgomery made two appearances in the Premiership as an 18-year-old, which caught Tierney’s eye. The Gunners full-back described him as a “good talent” that was “good enough” to follow in his footsteps.
Where Adam Montgomery is now
Now 22, the left-back has been out of action since February with a ‘serious’ hamstring injury, that he suffered whilst on loan with Motherwell in the Premiership.
Unfortunately, the Scottish defender has not kicked on in the same way that Tierney, who went straight into the first-team and emerged as a regular starter, did.
Montgomery did make 18 appearances in the first half of the 2021/22 campaign and was hailed by Ange Postecoglou for his “tremendous” composure, but was then sent out on loan to Aberdeen in January.
Postecoglou decided that the academy graduate was not up to the level required to be part of his first-team squad, much less to overtake Taylor, and sent him out on loan to St. Johnstone for the 2022/23 season.
Appearances
28
Starts
26
Goals
0
Assists
1
Dribbled past per game
0.8x
Pass accuracy
72%
As you can see in the table above, Montgomery was a regular in the team at Premiership level but failed to catch the eye with his performances, as he struggled to offer much in possession and was beaten by opposition forwards too often.
He was then sent on loan to Fleetwood Town in League One in England at the start of last season before being recalled after injury issues, before returning to Celtic in January and then suffering his hamstring issue after joining Motherwell.
At the time of writing, Transfermarkt values the young defender at just €500k (£413k) and this illustrates his lack of progression in recent years, with his performances lacking in quality even before his injury issues.
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Whilst he still has time to turn his career around, at the age of 22, Montgomery does not seem likely to emerge as the next Tierney for Celtic, despite his early promise after breaking through.
