Kieran Tierney has insisted that he has much to do before he can consider himself ready to take on the Celtic captaincy.

The 20-year-old, who signed a six-year contract last month with Celtic, has deputised in the absence of Scott Brown and Mikael Lustig this season.

However, while he relished the chance to wear the armband Tierney is in no rush to usurp Brown from his position.

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"My biggest honour was captaining the team in a competitive match," the Scotland internationalist told the Celtic View.

"To do that at 20-years-old was unbelievable and beyond my dreams. I love that responsibility.

"Broony is the No.1 captain and the best you can work under. He is so influential in the changing room and he just commands every game as he runs the midfield.

"It would be brilliant [to one day be captain] but I have a long way to go and a lot of learning to do before I would ever be named captain.

"The manager has given me a taste of it a couple of times and I will learn from that and take more responsibility from those matches where I have to take charge."

While Tierney has been particularly effusive in his praise of manager Brendan Rodgers and the manner in which his game has developed under him, he is also thankful to previous manager Ronny Deila.

It was the Norwegian who gave Tierney his fist-time debut in a game at Dens Park, and the left-back will always be thankful to Deila for setting him onto the path he is currently relishing.

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Tierney also scored the first goal of the 7-0 win over Motherwell, Deila's final game in charge at Celtic and the first game of the 63 match unbeaten run that the Parkhead side are enjoying domestically.

"I came on against Dundee for my debut and I was on £200 a week," smiled Tierney.

"I was just a wee kid and in those first two games I was playing as a fan but on Flag Day in the next season, I really thought 'I want to play for Celtic and get a run of games.'

"Lucky for me, Ronny Deila had faith in me and he played me.

"I will always be grateful to him. I can't describe how much he has changed my life.

"He gave me the platform to play. I played in the Europa League against Fenerbahce in my fourth match and playing in such a big game like that so early on helped me develop as a player and gave me confidence.

"That game could have gone either way and it could have broken my Celtic career. For him to have faith in me and to keep playing me in the Europa League - I think I played four Europa games that season - was special.

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"The dream isn't just to play with Celtic but to come through the different levels and eventually make your first-team debut. You think the hardest thing is getting your chance but it is even harder taking it. As a young boy, you only get a couple of games to bed into the team which is tough but luckily I had a manager who trusted me."

Tierney has become the posterboy for Celtic's youth academy but against Bayern Munich in the Champions League last term there were a few homegrown players on view.

James Forrest, Tierney and Callum McGregor were arguably Celtic's best trio on the night and Tierney believes that Forrest can slip under the radar at times in terms on not always getting the acclaim he deserves.

"He steps up for the big games," said Tierney.

"Even Rosenborg away when he got the goal that got us through to the next round in the Champions League.

"He has scored in cup finals as well. Playing against him in training is hard as he is so direct. He can go inside and outside and you usually need someone to double up to help you with him.

"He is a top player.

"With wingers, the competition is so hard that you might not always get the game time that you need, as you can't just hit one or two games and hit top form, you need a run of games.

"James has shown he can do it on the biggest stage of all against one of the nest teams in the world."