A big part of the support is the fans. Kieran, who has now made more than 100 appearances for the club, says the bond is stronger than ever and is leading to tangible results on the pitch.
“Yeah, they make a 100 percent difference. I would say a few good examples since we have already seen this season. When we got the right fans behind us there. When that happens, especially at home, if you let it go and you feel like the fans are on your side then you feel like you can go and get back at somebody and bounce back.
“I think that’s great, if we can keep it from this season until the end, it will give confidence to all the players. So if we have a bad start in the game, or if we let ourselves down and have the fans behind us, we know we’ve recovered and we can achieve another goal.
Only five players in the current squad have made more appearances than Kieran, and he says he is developing a leader every season. He sees himself as someone who inspires the younger players around him in the future.
“I’m finishing my games,” he said. I’d probably say in the last year or so I’ve matured a lot in it and taken on more responsibility, being a little older myself.
“I enjoy that part and, again, probably from people watching Scott Brown. A little older when he plays in the Celtic first team. I hope the younger boys or people who have just moved here will feel comfortable enough to come and ask me if they need any help inside or outside of football.
“Since we have a number of young players, maybe if I was in another team, I would be one of the younger ones. But in this team, I’ve been here for four years, I’m one of the more experienced ones, so I need to hurry regardless. You don’t really have a choice.
“But nothing, I’m not smart at all and I enjoy helping people. This time especially I do it more out of planning. I’m not only getting to myself, but also supporting the boys in the room before the game and stuff like that is good for me too.”
Being in a healthy place in the current league, Kieran says that the movement and spirit is naturally very high inside the worship room anyway.
As a player with ten club honors to his name already, two for yards, the left-back is used to winning and indeed says the opportunity to add more trophies to his collection would be a huge milestone.
“Nothing wins wins. It’s the best, he smiles. “It’s always the best feeling to be honest. I think last season was the first time I didn’t have a trophy because I had a trophy every season Celtic then had the FA Cup in the first year here. Then if you count the community shield, next time too.
So the last season of my life would have been the first year of undefeated, and that I missed. It’s hard to take – like an addictive drug. You just want to lift the trophy, you want to celebrate, you want to reach the finals, you want to play in all those big games.
“So yeah, it’s something I really want to do with this team. And this team, I think, is really driven to that goal as well. The common goal among all of us is to be victorious.”
Kieran knows all about winning, and finishes by saying two of our summer arrivals – Alex Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus – in particular inject that spirit into the squad: “You’ve really helped the two Man City signings. Alex and Gabby have that experience of winning in this country — they’ve won at the highest level and they’ve done it for years and years.
“They have won many trophies in England. He won a lot in Scotland, but it’s different. The cup is different against different teams, but they have experience here and they help us to believe.
It was one of the first conversations I had with Gabby when I came in here. He told me he could do it. As soon as he came, he said that the ball was all the time without a kick.
“He said that he felt he was playing against us last year. I think everyone could see that we were better, raising our level, and we were better and closer to reaching the goal. It was a sad end of the season, but I think people noticed that we were on the right path, and we did it. It is our challenge now to preserve and to preserve and develop better.