Kieran Tierney admits he struggled mentally after leaving Celtic for Arsenal.
The Scotland star made the £25million move to the Emirates in August following a meteoric rise through the Parkhead youth ranks, going on to rack up the trophies with his boyhood club. Tierney has since established himself as key cog in Mikel Arteta’s team and penned a new-long term deal to stay in North London last summer following interest from Real Madrid and Manchester City.
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the left back. Arsenal are the focus of Amazon’s latest series of their popular ‘All or Nothing’ documentary series. The show has gone behind the scenes with several NFL franchises, before expanding to include the Premier League with a fly-on-the-wall look at the goings on with the Gunners’ bitter rivals, Tottenham. And Tierney admits on camera he suffered from homesickness after leaving Glasgow. The 25-year-old, originally from near Motherwell, has spoken of how he was really low despite making the life-changing move.
Having seen childhood pals take their own lives due to unspoken anguish, Tierney knows how important it is to open up when things are getting a bit much. And he feels a responsibility to be there for others having seen the consequences of mental health struggles up close.
“It was hard to start with, I was really struggling,” he said in the documentary. “Really low point. Homesickness was terrible to start with.
“Outside training you had a lot of time to think. I’m not saying I was ever in a bad, bad place where I was suicidal. But my friends have been. Two or three of them have committed suicide, lost their life. You’re with these people and you don’t know a thing. They’ve not spoken.
“So I think I feel a certain responsibility to try to help as much as I can because I kind of know how it feels to be in a certain place.”
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