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Arsenal’s Treatment Of Tierney Increases The Chances Of His Ending Up At Celtic Park.

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Look, for the record, I have been dead-set against a return to this club for Kieran Tierney. It would cost us a fortune even if he was only coming here on loan. But little by little I’ve come to the conclusion that a deal for him is more likely than not. Arsenal’s treatment of him, which is way beyond what’s rational on their part, makes it so.

What exactly is their plan for Tierney? They are demanding an unfathomably high transfer fee in order to let him go. But at the same time, they have removed him from their first team squad and placed him in the reserves. It hardly screams for other clubs to come in and offer big money for him. I thought one would have by now, but perhaps this explains it.

There is another explanation, and one gaining credence; maybe Tierney only want to come home. I find that slightly hard to believe, because if, say, Newcastle wanted him and were prepared to pay the big money I think he’d go. What he wants to do is play, and if clubs in England won’t offer him that chance then he’ll go somewhere where the manager will.

Kieran Tierney would walk into this team. That’s just a plain and simple unarguable unalterable fact. I would be worried if we paid a lot of money for him, because he does some have injury issues and they would concern me. But I was shocked – and I mean that genuinely – to be reminded that Kieran is only 26; if we did sign him we could probably count on him staying at the club for the next three or four years minimum. Which solves a lot of problems.

But a permanent deal is unlikely if we’re being generous. I always thought a loan deal would be the more obvious bet, and especially with him being able to play right back very well and in central defence; he’s excelled for Steve Clarke’s team in both of those positions, against some proper good opposition. I have little doubt he could tick a lot of boxes.

My old man thinks Arteta’s issue with Tierney is an Ibrox thing; I would tend to disagree because Arteta is just another guy who played there. More likely, Tierney, who is not a guy who will keep his mouth shut if he thinks he’s been messed about, has expressed dissatisfaction with the way he’s been treated generally and Arteta is now acting out of pique. But you never know, because Ibrox does weird things to people and you can’t rule it out.

But Arteta certainly isn’t giving Tierney a fair shake, and so there’s a big problem between them, and it is one which it seems to me is unlikely to be fixed. Tierney has no future at Arsenal, and that’s about as obvious as anything can be, and so he will move on and probably not for anywhere near the kind of money they want for him.

I thought this was one that would go to the wire. I thought this was one that might end with us making a move on the transfer window’s final day. I think obviously we may have to move sooner than that now, with the current injury issues we have.

A deal now is much more likely than it was. There would have to be compromises on all sides, but since he and the club have pretty much burned their bridges its in no-ones interests for the situation with him to simply rumble on and on and on.

We can give the club and the player a solution … and in the short term at least, come up with something that might work for us as well.

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8 comments

  • John S says:

    As much as I’d love to see Kieran adorning the hoops, it just doesn’t seem economically practical. Having said that, in terms of his abilities and what he’d bring, it’s a pretty good ‘sticking plaster’ for a defence beset with injuries.

  • Jackson says:

    James
    Maybe your old man is right after all re Arteta 🙂
    Anyway come on home Keiran your fans await!

    HH

  • Captain Swing says:

    I “lean towards” Arsenal in England but I can’t stand Arteta. It’s nothing to do with his “iBrox connections” – he’s hardly Rino Gattuso – it’s simply because he’s a poser, a wannabe and frankly a flat—out loser. All that last season’s capitulation was missing was a Keegan-esque mid-interview meltdown. He’s not quite the Beale of the EPL (he at least actually had a playing career for a start), but he’s only a few notches above that IMO. Tierney was benched last season to play Zinchenko, who himself was benched the other night so he could play a right back at left back… maybe that’s what he thinks real football coaches mean by “inverted full-backs”?!!

    Whatever else he might be, though, I don’t think Arteta is exactly a dyed in the wool Orc – I think the fact that Tierney was signed by a predecessor – Unai Emery – is the main issue, probably alongside his injury record, which is really pretty horrendous -only once in his career has he managed over 30 league games in a season. We had to keep Izaguirre on to cover for his absences.

    I think Tierney when fit is a serious class act. Whether he’s the guy to help you through a deepening injury crisis is maybe open to question.

  • jrm63 says:

    A much cheaper solution is to move McGregor to left back. It would also allow us to stiffen the midfield. Its time for a 4-4-2 in any case. Abada and Maeda produce nothing from wide positions anyway. Taylor is appalling anyway.

    • Herbal says:

      Yes! McGregor was just BRILLIANT at left back every time Brendan tried to play him there before and NOTHING got past him!

      Yes! A brilliant solution!

      We could also try Kyogo as a centre half or goalkeeper, as there’s just no end to the versatility of this squad!

    • Dan Cowie says:

      I think saying Taylor is appalling is a bit harsh, the lad had a decent season last year. Maybe if he was a player with a bad attitude it would be more acceptable, but the laddie gives his all

  • Michael McCartney says:

    No chance of KT coming back to Celtic Park, football economics these days makes it impossible. Hope Celtic aren’t wasting time on this when they should be getting on with plotting realistic targets to help us through the next couple of months.
    There are also a lot of .surplus well paid players hanging around who have to be moved out.
    We can’t afford to have passengers around the place.

  • Wee Gerry says:

    Real Sociedad for Tierney looks likely.

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