So impressed had Alistair Johnston been by the stature of Kieran Tierney as he watched him play for Arsenal and Scotland, that the Canadian was a little taken aback when he met the returning Celtic hero for the first time in the flesh.
“It's funny, when I've watched him play in the past, I actually thought he was bigger because of his presence on the pitch,” Johnston said.
“Oh, man, he's got an engine on him. Everything that he does, he does it with power. How he gets up and down the park, takes his guys on and how he defends. Then I saw him in person and I'm like, ‘Man, I'm actually bigger than him. I have a couple extra kilos on him too.’
“I'm like, ‘Okay, well there's no reason why I can't do that then too’. I think that that's kind of a good reminder - ‘Wow, he plays even bigger than he is’.”
“He's unbelievably technical, but look at what he puts into his body, how he takes care of himself, how he trains,” he said.
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“He's a madman of a trainer in terms of just giving everything. His ball striking, his quality - it'll add a lot to our group. I'm just really excited to play with him. It’s been great and he's a big personality.
“That was something that we needed with Greg (Taylor) leaving. You could probably tell how big of a personality he was just by his interviews and things along those lines.
“Losing him was not only big on the pitch but off the pitch as well. Having Kieran come back in is great. He’s talented beyond belief as a footballer and also just a good lad who gets the football club.
“That's another thing that can't be downplayed. how important that is to have that kind of people that are born and bred Celtic men. That is important. Kieran just has the DNA to play here. It's been great to have him in.
“He’s great lad and he gets it, as a lot of people would say.”
Not that Tierney’s return, as welcome as it is, wholly compensates for the loss of his predecessor at left back, Taylor, whose importance to the team was, Johnston believes, widely underestimated.
In particular, he says that the team are having to find a way to adapt tactically without Taylor’s ability to operate in the middle of the park, with both he and Tierney, as more conventional full backs, finding a novel way to decide who should take on that responsibility.
“Kieran kind of joked it'll be rock, paper, scissors to see who has to do it,” he laughed.
“But no, we'll figure that out.
“I think there's a world where we both play kind of as more traditional fullbacks. I think there's a world where we find that extra number in the midfield through another way.
“In the past couple of years, I haven’t been inverting, but the positions that I take up when the ball is on the other side are still technically inverted positions to a degree compared to what a normal fullback would do.
“I wasn't doing what Greg Taylor was doing, who was literally just standing in the middle! But when you watch him, he was unbelievable at it, how he moved off the back of the winger and found space.
“It's going to be a challenge for all of our fullbacks to kind of find that balance if we are going to try and do some of that. But we’ll see what the coaching staff has in mind.
“We're going to have a bit of a tactical thing to figure out in terms of Greg was an inverting fullback. Me, Tony (Ralston), Kieran definitely are not. So, we'll see in terms of what the gaffer is going to plan around how we're going to do that.
“That's just another challenge that it poses. But we want to try and figure out and see how we can be successful.”
They don’t have much time to do so. The league season is of course already underway, with a trip to Pittodrie looming on Sunday, not to mention the small matter of a make-or-break Champions League qualifier against either Kairat Almaty or Slovan Bratislava to come in a couple of weeks.
Johnston is confident though that the team can hit their straps to meet that challenge, and despite some fears over the lack of summer business, that the strength in depth is already in place to get the job done.
“It's going to be a test, there's no doubt about that,” he said.
“I do feel that we have the squad in there that can get that done. There’s probably plenty of talk about the outgoings. But at the same time, I look at us bringing in some really talented players.
“We've also got a group that's played together for an extra year now and money can’t buy that Champions League experience we picked up. We have played at Celtic Park together in this big moments and we have an understanding of what it means to play at the highest level for this club.
“I think that we are in a better spot in terms of the Champions League mentality wise, and you never know what's going to happen at the end of the transfer window.
“However, this is a massive European qualifier this month and we know it won’t be easy. It’s going to really kind of kickstart the season and then, you hopefully get through and look at the draw.
“Then you have to see who you get and find a way to get enough points to secure knockout football. And then you probably hope you don’t draw Bayern Munich in the first round again - that would definitely help!
“But within our changing room, we feel we have the quality and the experience to take another step, both domestically and on the European front.”
