Arsenal lay out their Tierney terms
Arsenal are open to offers on Kieran Tierney but he would only go out on loan if there is an obligation to buy.
That claim is made by Football London as they assess the Arsenal squad going into the final week of the transfer window.
Mikel Arteta’s squad is put at 32, like Celtic that is at least half a dozen too high but moving players on is far more difficult that signing them in the first place.
Despite the diplomatic words of his manager Tierney has been left out of Arsenal’s 20 man squad for their first two matches of the season which leads to only one logical conclusion.
How Celtic finance such a move is an entirely different question but what appears to be a very far fetched transfer tale still remains possible.
Football London reports:
Arsenal retain a bloated first team squad of 32 players. Mikel Arteta has already described this number as “unsustainable” and there have been training exercises where players have had to be left out due to the size of the group.
The Gunners are trying to address this and sources within the club have indicated that they are keen to avoid a similar situation to Chelsea last season where the Blues’ inflated squad size created issues for their four different managers.
Thus far though finding exit paths for several fringe players who are not part of Arteta’s plans has proved difficult. The Spaniard has regularly insisted that Kieran Tierney is still a part of his plans across the course of this summer, but football.london understands that Arsenal are open to offers for him.
The Scottish international has been omitted from both of Arsenal’s Premier League matchday squads this season and is keen to secure regular game time elsewhere. Newcastle were among the interested sides, but they have since pivoted to signing Lewis Hall from Chelsea.
Real Sociedad remain another possible destination for Tierney although the Spanish side would only look to take him on loan. Edu is working hard to ensure that any possible loan deals include an obligation to buy at the end of them, but the club stance is that permanent deals remain preferable.
On July 17 The Metro reported Rodgers saying:
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.
As the 1st of September gets closer negotiations will get down to the nitty gritty. Meeting Arsenal’s fee or Tierney’s wages appears outside of Celtic’s budget but a deal can’t be completely dismissed.