Kieran Tierney

TBR Football understands that Arsenal and Celtic are currently in talks regarding Kieran Tierney’s immediate future.

Tierney left Celtic Park for Arsenal back in 2019, and has since made 128 appearances for the Gunners, a figure he’s been slowly adding to of late


TBR revealed in December that Tierney only wanted to return to Celtic once his contract expires in the summer, a defender who also has plenty of interest elsewhere.

West Ham enquired about Tierney, but the former Celtic man has had his heart set on a reunion with Brendan Rodgers.


Graeme Bailey – chief correspondent at TBR Football, understands that Arsenal and Celtic are now in talks regarding Tierney’s future


Despite his willingness to go, Tierney – who has agreed terms with Celtic on his summer move – won’t push to leave Arsenal this month unless they are happy to let him go

As a result, there’s no certainty that the Scotland international will swap the Emirates Stadium for a return to Celtic in the immediate future.


On their part, Arsenal have told Tierney that Oleksandr Zinchenko might leave, and the Gunners don’t want to be left short in defence.

Borussia Dortmund are interested in Zinchenko, and Arsenal have injuries at left-back.

Tierney is on great terms with Mikel Arteta and the club and therefore he won’t force the issue to move this month.

Neither Arsenal or Tierney know for sure whether the defender will move this month, but as it stands, Tierney is unlikely to switch clubs in January.


In line with Tierney and Arteta’s respect for each other, the Arsenal boss actually claimed back in 2021 that he could see the Scot becoming a future captain at the Emirates.

Things eventually worked out differently for the pair, but Tierney will always remain a very popular figure around north London


Speaking four years ago, Arteta said: “I think he can be [Arsenal captain], because he has the respect and the admiration of every member of the staff and every player


It’s just the way he is, he does it in a natural way. He’s a shy boy but I think he represents all of the values we want to install and that are in the DNA of this club.

“He came here and it took him a while, he had a really bad injury… but he’s a natural leader.

“You see how he behaves on that pitch, and when he talks he says the right thing and it’s exactly what we’re looking for.”

 

If we sign a pre-contract then he’ll end up with * all game time down there, hopefully at least get him in on loan or pay something to get him up quicker.

 

He'll be gaining more than that at his sign on bonus. Free agents are rarely "free" these days anyway. Get him in, pay him, win the champions league. Life complete.

 

Don’t understand this, he’s out of contract in 6 months, meaning we don’t have to negotiate with Arsenal. The only reason we need to discuss things with Arsenal is to get him here now. So, that’s clearly why we are talking to Arsenal.

 

If it's July I'll feel pretty 'meh' about it all

 

Think the fact he is still getting game time means its a summer deal. They also have some injury problems at LB.

 

Might push for it tho if its going from getting 10 to 15 mins here and there he's risking getting an injury more with lack of match fitness. If we can manage to bed him in the next 4-5 months and manage his game time to suit us and him long term it could work wonders for getting him match fit going into next season.

 

Can we put a clause in his contract that he has to retire from the scotland team

 

We could try to. Don’t think he’d agree with it and say get it to * pronto to be fair, but we could try to.

Better angle is asking Calmac to gently suggest to him how good an idea it would be

 

2 weeks ago when it broke they want rid, the next link for him was £8m. By all accounts pre-contract is now agreed, and now its us talking to Arsenal about paying off rest of contract and a fee, a loan for him or what we can do to make it happen.

Longer he’s still there this window, then Arsenal will just want rid