Kieran Tierney has credited Celtic for leaving Ibrox with a point on Sunday as he backed his old club to pip Rangers to the Scottish Premiership title.
Tierney, 26, has been watching from afar since leaving in 2019 and reckons the 3-3 Glasgow Derby thriller last weekend was one of the best matches he's seen.
The result kept a single point between the city rivals in the league table with season soon coming to a climax.
Celtic fans weren't permitted inside the stadium, which Tierney points to making the outcome at Ibrox more credible despite Brendan Rodgers' men squandering a 2-0 lead.
In an interview with talkSPORT, the former Hoops left-back said: "Yep, one of the best games I've watched in a long time. I'm absolutely devastated we couldn't hold on to the victory, but to be honest, to go there with no fans and come away with a point and to have the title in your hands still is kind of all you can ask for after a game like that."
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The Scotland international was then probed whether he's still as emotionally invested in Celtic, having departed the club almost five years ago.
He is currently on loan at La Liga side Real Sociedad after falling down the pecking order at Arsenal, yet clearly hasn't lost his passion for his boyhood heroes.
"Yeah, 100 per cent," he replied. "I'm still a Celtic fan and you can go back to being the fan again because when you are a player, you've got to try and detach yourself a little bit and take some of the emotions out it.
"But when I don't play there now, I can be the fan I was when growing up which is nice."
It's a title race that looks to be going down to the wire, and Tierney reckons Celtic's know-how to find results in big games could prove pivotal.
He continued: "Well I really hope it's Celtic. I think Celtic have got a track record of turning up in the big, big games. I don't know how many in the last derbies Celtic have won but I'm sure the percentage is in their favour.
"I think as long as they keep on doing what they are doing because I think the last few weeks they have been playing brilliant, with a couple of injuries, big injuries in the squad as well. So, with people coming back and the form that we are on this now, I think it will look good hopefully."
Broadcaster Jim White concluded the chat by asking Tierney if he sees his career taking him back to Celtic Park in the future.
"Who knows," he smiled. "You never know in football, it's a connection that I will always have and it's somewhere I will imagine I will always be linked with if I were to move from any club.
"So, you know never know."
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