Kieran Tierney: Scotland and Arsenal's MVP - Man City keeping tabs on 'one of a kind'

Questions, claims and consternation have fizzed in all sorts of directions following Scotland’s sobering international window.

In truth, even with the dastardly-double of World Cup hopes being crushed by the 3-1 play-off defeat to Ukraine and the Republic of Ireland dishing out an excruciating 3-0 defeat in the Nations League, reactions have been OTT. Only one constructive consensus can be considered to have emerged: KT is indisputably Scotland’s MVP. Now, for the avoidance of doubt, one matter requires to be tackled in setting out that Kieran Tierney - to give the Arsenal defender his Sunday name - must be acknowledged as his country’s most valuable performer. In no way is this judgement related to the knee surgery that prevented the 25-year-old playing any part in the four games Steve Clarke’s men contested in recent weeks; the other two resulting in pretty straightforward Nations League victories, home then away, to Armenia.

The outstanding talents of Tierney, both of the technical and terrier variety, are now regularly recognised globally. It is no co-incidence that Real Madrid and Barcelona have been credited with interest in the former Celtic man over recent months. Moreover, he is understood to feature on a list of Manchester City possibles for bolstering their left-back options. What makes him so fundamental to his national team’s cause, though, is that this is one of three functions he effectively performs with the lion rampant on his chest. Deployed on the left of the back three, Tierney is simultaneously centre-back, full-back and overlapping full-back when operating in tandem with his Scotland captain Andy Robertson, pushed up on the same flank to accommodate him. And his Liverpool counterpart is first to