Kieran Tierney chat with Brendan Rodgers sets Celtic fans' hearts racing as they manifest transfer return dream

A return to Celtic for Kieran Tierney is the one transfer fans refuse to give up hope on.

The Scotland star's struggles with Arsenal make a departure from the Emirates ever more likely. Tierney spent last season on loan at Real Sociedad and injury during the Euros has kept him sidelined so far this season, although he's well down the pecking order under Mikel Arteta anyway.

Now a snap of him deep in conversation with Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers has set fans off again. The pair were attending the club's charity foundation's annual gala in London, taking advantage of the international break to show face and raise money for a worthy cause. The foundation's official X account shared a photo of the pair talking away. And while affording Tierney remains out of the question - he still has 18 months left on his Gunners deal on wages that the Premiership champions couldn't hope to get anywhere near - that didn't stop fans fantasising about how Rodgers might be trying to pitch a homecoming to the Hoops academy graduate.

One replied: "Brendan explaining the £100k-a-week pay cut isn;t the end of the word..." While another added: "If we had you in Dortmund, we're winning that game KT."

Others were more to the point, demanding: "Don't care if he's injury prone, bring him home anyway," which was a variation on a theme. More said: "bring him home," "up the road son," and "up the road wee man."

On the other hand, it may just have been Rodgers recalling his younger days again, according to one cheeky punter: "Chatting about Finn Harps in 1983," following Rodgers' very specific recollection of watching a Celtic friendly in Ireland as a kid prior to Wednesday night's clash with Sligo Rovers.

Tierney was asked by talkSport earlier this