Throughout this transfer window, no deal—whether incoming or outgoing—has seemed more likely than Kieran Tierney’s departure. The Scottish international had been tipped for a move in January ahead of his contract expiring in the summer. Several clubs expressed interest in the 27-year-old, but earlier in the window, it became clear that Celtic had emerged as firm favourites for his signature. The expectation was that he would rejoin his boyhood club this month. However, if the latest reports are to be believed, any move will now take place in the summer.
This delay isn’t due to a failure to reach an agreement but because Tierney is on the verge of signing a pre-contract agreement with Celtic. According to The Telegraph, he is now close to completing an emotional return to Scotland. With his contract set to expire in the summer, Tierney has been free to negotiate with other clubs ahead of a potential free transfer. Despite opportunities to play abroad or remain in the Premier League, the Scottish international has opted to return to his former club.

Six years after his £25m move to Arsenal, Kieran Tierney appears ready to resume his career in familiar surroundings. He never truly looked at home with the Gunners, so this move feels like a natural fit for him. Looking back on his Arsenal career, injuries and inconsistency were largely to blame for what turned out to be a rather underwhelming stint at the club.
As a fan favourite, Gooners will likely be happy for him. At least now he’ll have the chance to revive his career!
BENJAMIN KENNETH
I think injuries are the reason for the inconsistencies. Need to be able to string a few games together to find consistency.
All in all, I actually like KT.
Kia,
Sadly when you’ve got a manager who continually ignores you, Tierney was never afforded the chance to string those few games together to find the consistency, as you so rightly say.
Under Arteta, Tierney was a largely wasted talent to be fare. 👍
Sorry Benjamin, but you wither have a short memory, or you’ve only just become a fan
Tierney was tipped to become our captain, such was his performances at the start of his career.
Of course his injuries plagued his time here, but to say he was “underwhelming” and never looked at home at the club, is total BS.
I’m very happy if he sees out his contract and then rejoin Celtic, because we still need a proper LB and he will give 100% as always.
A model professional, never complained or bad mouthed the club and was always ready to play when fit.
I hope every other player has the same commitment and attitude and can I ask that you do your homework before writing such a disrespectful article?
Ken1945,
I totally agree with everything you said regarding Tierney. A more model professional and respectful player would be hard to find.
And for Benjamin to call him underwhelming, outrageous and mind boggling to be honest.🙄🤦♂️
How was the article disrectpectful ? 😂
Naaa, I couldn’t be bothered mate, enjoy.
Benjamin,
To call him underwhelming was disrespectful.
While he’s had more than his fare share of injury problems, when he got a regular run in the side he more than proved he was a good left back.
so , to call him underwhelming was uncalled for in my humble opinion.👍
100% agree Ken. It is almost as if the writer has never seem Tiernay play a game for us.
Thanks for the great effort in those 90 or so appearances Kieran.
Just counting PL of course.
To be fair Derek, Tierney was given the opportunity and he took it.
He was even mooted to become our captain under MA, but his injuries stopped that from happening didn’t it?
It is good to see MA using him as a regular substitute now and I’m pleased he will be available for us during the run in for the PL and CL trophies.
I agree, such a wasted talent, but not the fault of any one individual, as much as you want to blame Mikel Arteta.
Just like Diaby, the body couldn’t sustain the talent it possessed.
Just read you reply to me Derek, so my apologies for having a niggle at you.
We see eye to eye on this one 👍👍
No need to apologize Ken1945,
I did have a little swipe at Arteta in my piece, sometimes I just can’t help myself. 😊😉👍
👍Spot on ken1945. Sadly, Kieran has always had injuries going back to his original Celtic days. Hopefully, this will finally change for good when he returns to his old club. His professionalism and hard work has always made him one of my favorite gunners.
Inconsistency was not the issue….injuries were. A far superior full back to Zinchenko who let’s not forget cost goals in big matches and is about as effective in defending as Partey. But of course Zinchenko is a Pep product and therefore more worthy in Arteta’s eyes. KT had a great attitude and will be missed…he could even have done a decent job as a makeshift centre half if necessary Monreal style.
Calafiori is a decent player but seems to be another KT injury wise. Not sure if money was well spent there…
Tierney arrived with an injury and they have marred his career. I hope he goes out on a high and remains fit now and in his future wherever that leads.
Wonderful professional respectful in every way to the club he is a perfect example to young players in how to behave as a professional player he is a credit to his family and his country and I wish the boy nothing but success its been a total pleasure having had him represent Arsenal
KT has been fit all season and to me he is, without a shadow of doubt our best LB.The trouble is we no longer use conventional full backs in the possession obsessed system deployed by our Manager who himself was never in the same class as KT as a player.Under the current tactics we have gone from being an attractive, attacking team to a slow moving unit playing a brand of football which is quite frankly, boring and, more importantly, unlikely to bring us real success in terms of us winning the Premier League.Given his record of injuries I can understand why Arteta is looking to move on KT ,but his departure will signal a continuation of the regulated, risk averse brand of football which has evolved under our current Manager.I wish KT every success on his return to a Club where he is revered by all.
I agree with Grandad here … we have become pedestrian, predictable and boring to watch, the same as Barcelona were a few years back. However, you cannot knock possession – if you have the ball the opponents cannot score. Barcelona were boring, but then up front they had a small, unlikely looking superstar – Messi. When he had the ball, they came to life. Meanwhile, AFC have no centre forward.
I was never bored by Barcelona who always played with two attacking full backs like Alves and Alba who provided width and continuous support for their wingers.
Another player Arteta froze out
Mooted as a potential captain for his attitude, which everyone loves, including myself, but I do think people look on him with rose tinted specs as a result. He’s a good left back imo, and can be very useful going forwards, but he’s not world class and actually not that great defensively (not bad, not great) – compared to gael Clichy, say, he’s a bit better going forwards (mainly for his crossing) and a bit worse defending – just my opinion. He *could* fit into this team quite well, I do agree with that, but I don’t trust him to stay fit. We’ve a few others who’ve fallen into that camp, tomiyasu in particular, but Tierney’s injury history goes back a long way, so it’s unsurprising to me that his time with us is coming to an end.
And the fact arteta has been bringing him on recently shows it’s not a personal thing – it *was* tactical (rightly or wrongly), and I think arteta’s shifted a bit on that now, but I do think the injuries make him a lower priority to keep around.
Davi, when was the last time he was unfit?
Probably last season, but he hasn’t played much this – I don’t trust him to play till the end of the season without getting another serious injury. Maybe he’s past all that now, but I wouldn’t bet a new contract on it.
He was declared fit in November last year.
Since then, Califiori and Zinchenko have both been injured.
The emergence of Skelley has probably sealed Kieren’s fate, but he’s always played for the shirt and that’s how I’ll remember him.
He went on loan to sociedad and got injured?
Oh you mean November 2024, not November last season – apologies
Fascinating how people talk about Tierney because he is a fan favourite.
I have regularly read on here that he is the best LB at Arsenal. That’s quite a claim given that even when reasonably fit he is regularly benched.
Given some of the comments that regularly appear on this site it’s also curious to see that the claim that Tierney’s time at Arsenal has been underwhelming is considered outrageous.
Tierney is a good solid left back. However, in modern football that’s not enough. In his early days at Arsenal he was also pretty good when overlapping. However, it became clear over time that his game when Arsenal were in possession was limited for a modern FB at the highest levels. In Arteta’s preferred setup he’s a level below certain others that have played at FB.
Even if we only consider defending it can be argued that some of the others who have played at LB since Tierney’s been at Arsenal have been at least as good if not better.
David,
Zinchenko and Calafiori are better than Tierney, I think not.
👍I fully agree with your analysis Davi even though I have to confess to having a pair of those rose tinted specs.
👍 understandable, I have no doubt he’s a top bloke – I’m with everyone else on that. I hope very much that he proves me wrong and both gets over his injury troubles and makes a big name for himself, genuinely. He’s one I would like to see succeed regardless of who he plays for (unless he joins utd or something).
The 3 most successful club sides in Europe namely RM, Barca, and BM, not forgetting Liverpool, all play with a conventional LB so all this nonsensical tactics deployed by our Manager is blown out of the water and those who the think inversion is the way to success are being deluded.At the end of the day we will not win the Premier League playing slow possession based football .
Grandad,
There you go again. making perfect sense.😉👍
Being innovative in your club’s play can be very successful in the short-term assuming it’s the right idea and executed well. However, the problem is that the window for improved play is very short lived in the PL as other clubs figure out ways to counteract your innovative idea and ultimately use it against you.
Ultimately, as I believe you allude to with your examples, in the long-term it comes down to having the best players performing in the positions they are best at and in most cases have become highly paid professionals for.