BITTERSWEET
Tierney’s £25m exit takes shine off vital away goal for Forrest
JAMES ForrESt confessed to mixed emotions last night as he fired Celtic a step closer to the Champions League group stage — then left the pitch to discover Kieran tierney was heading to Arsenal in a record £25million deal.
the 22-year-old travelled to England last night to agree terms and undergo a medical while his team-mates were securing a valuable 1-1 draw against CFr Cluj.
Forrest’s first-half goal cancelled out Mario rondon’s opener and leaves Celtic in the driving seat to earn a meeting with Czech champions Slavia Prague in the play-off round.
By then, fans’ favourite tierney will be an Arsenal player after the English Premier League giants finally had a third offer accepted and moved closer to securing Unai Emery’s fifth signing of the summer. Sportsmail understands Celtic want a ten-per-cent sell-on clause included in the deal.
‘Kieran came through the youths the same as me and I’m with him every day,’ said Forrest. ‘It’s the same with the international squad as well.
‘It’s disappointing that he might be going but, at the same time, you have to be delighted for him.
‘He’s obviously earned himself a very big move. Everyone at the club was hoping that he would stay, but we wish him well if he does end up
going. At the end of the day, it’s gone on for two-and-a-half months. ‘Kieran has done really well to cope with it all because it must have been unsettling for him. ‘But he’s done really well at Celtic and he’s massive for the club. ‘He’s a big character in the changing room, he’s Scottish as well and came through the youth teams. ‘You see a lot of comparisons with myself and KT — and I’ll be delighted for him if it all goes through.’ Neil Lennon was content with the composed 1-1 draw which gives his Celtic side a real chance of finishing the job in Glasgow on Tuesday. The manager admitted after the match he was awaiting news on Tierney. ‘I’m hearing rumours myself but we’ve had nothing confirmed,’ said Lennon, although he did confirm interest in Scott Sinclair ahead of the closing of the English transfer window at 5pm today after the winger was left out of last night’s encounter. ‘I think there is. A player of that quality I’m sure there will be interest,’ added Lennon. ‘We couldn’t get Scott in the squad. We had a chat with Scotty on Monday and Tuesday before we left. ‘We’ve got strength in depth there. It’s difficult to get him in the squad with the numbers we have and we had (Jozo) Simunovic and (Christopher) Jullien back in from the weekend and (Marian) Shved, as well.’ Returning to matters on the field, Lennon added: ‘I thought we looked very, very dangerous all night. ‘We looked quick and good on the counter. We played some nice football and made the goalkeeper make some good saves. ‘With a little bit more care, we could have scored more goals. It’s not easy, coming here. I never make predictions but we can be a strong team at home, with a big crowd and a big atmosphere. I expect us to play strongly in Glasgow.’ Cluj boss Dan Petrescu accused Serbian referee Srdjan Jovanovic of favouring Celtic and insisted his side were the better team on the night. Petrescu even received a yellow card for protesting there was a foul in the build-up to Forrest’s goal. But the Celtic player added: ‘It shows a lot of character (to come back) again that we go 1-0 down. I thought we were actually playing well at the time when they scored. ‘We were in the game and we can look at it as a positive result. ‘You can feel it in games when we go behind in a game there is no sense of panic. ‘We’ll take a lot of confidence into the second leg from this game, but it’s definitely not over. ‘It’s only at halfway and they will see themselves as being able to go to Celtic Park and put a good shift in.’