Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has just hinted that the club are planning to offload some players before the new season begins and this news has sparked hopes of Celtic bringing back Kieran Tierney.
Tierney is one of the players who found it hard to get game time last season and if the right offer comes in, the Gunners will not hesitate to cash in on him.
The Arsenal boss has said in a recent interview: “Let’s see. There’s a lot of time in the market still. We’ll have to see how things develop in the next couple of weeks. We will be alert, there’s still time to do things, there’s still time for exits obviously. I am sure things will move.”
Kieran Tierney is a boyhood Celtic lad who moved to England in 2019 for a fee of around €27 million but Zinchenko’s arrival from Manchester City has pushed him down the pecking order. Last season, he played in 27 Premier League matches out of which only six were starts.
There have been several reports of Kieran Tierney heading back to Scotland in the summer and even Brendan Rodgers has touched on this subject.
He told the Scottish Sun: “There’s been lots of players linked with here with me coming back. All I know is Kieran is like myself, we loved our time here.
“When I spoke to him down the road in the Premier League, every time we met up all we talked about was Celtic. He’s a Celtic man but he’s at a fantastic club in Arsenal.
“You can just never say never in football. Who knows what might happen?
“We wouldn’t be able to buy Kieran for £25-£30million, that’s for sure, or the figures I see banded about. I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t be able to pay the huge salary he’s on. However, one can never tell.”
Will Celtic FC be able to bring in Kieran Tierney?
The 26-year-old still has three more years left on his Arsenal contract and his current market valuation is €25 million which means the Gunners will expect a transfer fee of around €40- million for the left-back.
There’s no way Celtic will be able to afford such a massive transfer fee so the only option they have is to ask him in a loan deal for the 23/24 season.
He currently earns £110,000 per week at the Gunners which means if he is looking for a permanent move back to Scotland he will have to take a massive pay cut because Celtic do not have the financial capability to pay such wages.
Kieran Tierney is still very fond of Celtic and even though Rodgers currently has Alexandro Bernabei and Greg Taylor at left-back, the SPFL side will be competing in four competitions next campaign which means they can very well use the Arsenal misfit.
Newcastle United had also shown an interest in signing the full-back but they are yet to make any sort of official offer. The Magpies are a club who can very easily pay what Arsenal are quoting and if they join this race then there’s no way Celtic will be able to sign Tierney.
The 26-year-old will be happy to return to his boyhood club but if Newcastle come in with an offer then we have a feeling Kieran Tierney will want to remain in the Premier League. A one-off loan deal is the only way Brendan Rodgers can get his hands on the left-back but Arsenal will be eager to offload him permanently rather than keep him in their books for one more season.
Should Arsenal hold onto the full-back?
Arsenal will return to the Champions League next season and if Kieran Tierney leaves then Zinchenko will be the only recognised left-back remaining in the squad.
Apart from these two, Arteta also has Nuno Tavares but the 23-year-old has made it clear that he wants to leave so unless Arsenal plan to sign a new left-back, they will start the new campaign with just Zinchenko.
They have signed Jurrien Timber but the central defender can play as a right-back and right now, Arsenal’s full focus is on signing another central midfielder.
The North London side were linked with Raphael Guerreiro but the left-back has gone and joined Bayern Munich and without a proper replacement in place it will be very risky to let go of Kieran Tierney. Last season, only a handful of injuries were enough to crumble Arsenal’s title push and the last thing Mikel Arteta will want is a repeat of the same.
