When Arsenal acquired Oleks Zinchenko last summer, no one anticipated it would be the end of Kieran Tierney’s career at the Emirates.
Back then, it was unclear whether Arteta was signing Zinchenko as his first choice, but months later, it is obvious as day that when both Zinchenko and Tierney are fit, the 2022 summer acquisition will start as Arteta’s first choice at left back.
Tierney is now faced with a decision: should he remain a squad player and be part of these great Arsenal days, or should he go elsewhere and do what he likes to do, play regular football? The 25-year-old is likely to leave Arsenal, and according to Chris Wheatley, not even the Premier League title will persuade him to stay. “The Scottish left-back is admired by Newcastle, Eddie Howe wants to sign him; he wanted to sign him when he was at Celtic, but he went to Arsenal instead.
“Tierney is a player who is really open to leaving the club this summer because he’s not had enough game time. He’s on course to win the league with Arsenal as things stand, but I don’t think that will affect his decision too much because he wants to be the number one left-back wherever he plays,” Wheatley said on the National World YouTube Channel.
I guess there will be many who will be hurt by Tierney’s departure if it goes through, but it may be the best course of action for Arsenal and the fullback. How things have changed: At this time last year, no one would have imagined Tierney leaving because he was seen as future captain material, but now he could leave.
Darren N
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Players that aren’t fully committed need to be let go.
It would depend on whether we will still play with the inverted LB tactics or not
It would also be good to sell him while he’s not injured, since he was injury-prone
We could use the sale money to re-invest in a U-20 LB. We’ve also got Lino Sousa, who could be trained to deputize Zinchenko
Tierney is not the type of guy who is prepared to sit on a bench and pick up his huge pay cheque without breaking sweat.Indeed he is probably embarrassed , more than annoyed by the fact that he is being deprived from playing to justify his wages.No, he is a down to earth young man who only wants to play football and is not concerned with being in the limelight.As it is he is one of the best natural left backs in the League and at international level he has proved himself in that position and also at left CB where he is unique in that he still finds space and energy to overlap Scotland’s left wing back, Andrew Robertson of Liverpool.Indeed the Danish Manager was openly amazed at the extra dimension provided by Tierney from left CB after their last match against Scotland.He may not have the ball skills of a talented midfielder like Zinchenko, but defensively and in terms of pace and energy he is as good as any conventional LB in the EPL.Arteta has stuck with the inverted left back tactic which enables Xhaka to retain his place, when the more effective Zinchenko ought to be our first pick at left midfield.Our Manager can of course justify his tactics as we sit on top of the League and until now he has resisted the opportunity to start Tierney in the League and ,sadly, in the Europa Cup.Not surprisingly, Tierney has been linked with a number of EPL Clubs, and given the type of guy he his, he will be keen to resurrect his career elsewhere, and deliver value for money, something he is unable to do at Arsenal.The lack of trust displayed by Arteta with regard to KT disappoints me , but from our current lofty position, I suspect I am in a minority of Arsenal fans.One thing for sure, given his quality we will not have any problem selling KT at a profit, and wherever he ends up, and it may well be a rejuvenated Newcastle, he will I am sure soon become a fan favourite and a real asset to his new employers.
The previous 3 seasons when we failed to make top 4, Arteta was at the receiving end of all the blame not Tierney or any other players, even when he could not stay fit for some important part of the seasons…. Do you think Arteta did wrong by moving on to a better system that works perfectly for the team? The position on the table is currently backing the decision up……yet people are complaining that he did not give chance to a player that have been here at the club before this season and as good as he is, he’s yet to make a significant contribution to the club position on the table either positive or negative….. I’m not saying KT is not a good player … What I’m saying is KT is not the reason for our good or bad forms for the previous seasons. Now that the manager tried another system which is currently working perfectly without KT… I see no reason for any complain because at the end of the season the person to be blame/praise is Arteta and he’s already trying something different from last season approach on the field… Are you sure with Tierney we will be at the top of the table at this time? I’m sure we all know the answer to that because we’ve tried it before, with him as part of the starting 11.
👍Grandad, I could not have expressed my feelings about Keiran Tierney better than you did. He is not the type of player satisfied to sit on the bench and collect his wages. Moving to a club like Newcastle United, where Eddie Howe appreciates him, he would earn higher wages and get more playing time; however Arsenal will have a much weaker squad without him.
If Tierney is not suitable to the new winning system & his unhappy then sale by all means.
To be fair the player has not publicly complained rather its the media brewing all this & trying to disturbilise us. If Tierney ends up with 2 Gold medals round his neck I don’t think he will have too much to mourn about.
Lots of games next season