Pundit urges Newcastle to seal the deal for Arsenal man

Former West Ham striker Frank McAvennie has urged Newcastle United to add Kieran Tierney to their squad this summer because he is one of the best left-backs in the league, even though he is struggling to play at Arsenal.

Tierney was the Gunners’ first choice before this season when they added Oleksandr Zinchenko to their squad from Manchester City.

The Ukrainian influences games more on the attack than Tierney and has been the first choice at the Emirates since his arrival.

This means Tierney has seen fewer minutes of action at the club and might want to leave at the end of this season.

Arsenal would be keen to keep the Scotsman, but it remains very unclear if he would want to stay.

Eddie Howe wants the ex-Celtic man at Newcastle and McAvennie believes he would be the right fit.

He tells Football Insider:

“If you want a left-back Tierney is the best. I think Eddie Howe likes his defenders to defend so Tierney would be ideal for Newcastle.

“I keep in touch with him and follow his career and I really want him to do well. For me Tierney is a step up on what Newcastle have got, he could be world-class if he gets a run of games.“

Just Arsenal Opinion

Tierney is one of the finest full-backs in the country and the defender deserves to play more often for us.

We need to keep him as we return to the Champions League because of squad depth, but the Scotsman wants to play regularly and might force a move away.

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Tags Frank McAvennie

16 Comments

  1. Perhaps this is the w/c defender that was eluded to in a previous article?

    I really am getting concerned about Mikel’s man management techniques… or the, seemingly, lack of them.

    KT is not the first to have been given this cold shoulder treatment and we are currently experiencing with ESR.

    To put Xhaka as a left sided defender, while ignoring KT is criminal enough, but to then bring on Viera and ignore ESR must rank as the two most puzzling decisions ever.

    As George Graham proved many years ago, you build from the back and, once you have those building blocks in place, you don’t change them.

    Tierney was one of our best players until Zinchenko came along and I see KT leaving because he is being disrespected – I’m afraid that might be the case with Saliba as well, despite the love in both he and MA portray to the media…. I really hope I’m wrong on this.

    The same goes for ESR,who’s face told a thousand stories when Viera was called upon.

    1. I agree,the way MA moves on from players is a bit worrying.i just look at Eddie Howe and how he’s improved some many players at Newcastle.Joelingtin used to be a laughing stock not anymore, Murphy,Almiron,Long staff…too many to write all of them down.

    2. Tierney and ESR are not feeling the cold shoulder. Look at the bigger picture:

      When have KT or ESR went on to play consecutively 10 full matches without injury? Probably never. Whenever they play regularly, they get in form and hey’ll get an injury! Every single season!

      Why hasn’t KT had an injury this season? Because he’s been used scarcely. If he had started first 10 games, he would’ve sprained his ankle, knee, shoulder, whatever. Same with ESR.

      I like them both. Fantastic attitudes, other one is one of our own.

      But you can’t turn a blind eye on how brittle they are. I have the official list of their past injuries and how many matches they’ve missed, and it is an extensive record. Simply put, they are hard to be trusted.

      1. Statistics of KT

        21/22 Knee Surgery, 10 matches
        21/22 Ankle problems, 3 matches
        20/21 Knee Injury, 8 matches
        20/21 Knee Injury, 6 matches
        20/21 Virus Infection, 0 matches
        20/21 Groin Injury, 2 matches
        19/20 Shoulder Injury, 19 matches

        That is over quarter matches missed like clockwork. Same record at Celtic, every season. This is his first season he’s not been injured. Reason is easy to guess..? Because he’s playing as much as his body can obviously handle.

    3. KEN I am boumnd to say I agree , for once , qwith all your points. Anextremely puzzling lin eup yesterdy andunles threir is something we do not know about ESRin particular, as well as Tierney, I CAN SEE BOTH LEAVING THIS SUMMER.

      IF, the only explanation that makes any sense as a possible ressom for so doing – to sell both for as much as he can to get, to raisefunds for new players, than he is hardly incressing their value to prospective buyers by his odd sidelining of both. I thought yesteday was actuallu our very worst perf of the last year, as with the Brighton game , ast least we made chances.

      But despite 82% possession we could have played til next week an not looked remotely like scoring. I do not profess to know whats gone wrong but I DO SENSE something is not as it was, even recently, in the dressing room.

      I sense Jesus beIng esp frustrated and he looks unhappy. Mind, he always DOES look worried. But I sense something more than just his normal raised eyebrow expression is bothering him.

      When he was at City , my private nickname for him – and I have many for most players, in truth, though I never say them(til now) – was “quizzical ping -pong cheeks”!
      ESR must be hurting a lot, given his time at the club and his odd shunning.
      UNLESS we are all not party to something that only those in the club know. What do you think?

    4. I totally agree with your comments the viera one really done me. ESR must be thinking Wtf

    5. Spot on @ken1945. Agree with you completely, especially with remarks about William Saliba.

  2. Not only is he a better defender than the Ukrainian, he’s probably the best in the league at the left back position,

    It’s no use trying to force the water up hill, the gaffer simple does not like his style of play, and will not start him despite various Armchair managers ranting

    1. I don’t think supporters of KT are “ranting” GS, we are just totally perplexed by the Managers attitude towards him and ESR.Arteta is on record a few days ago acknowledging the loss of very poor goals, yet he failed to make the simple tactical change needed to shore up the defence?His intransigence could well have cost us the League but he will never admit to that.

      1. Grandad Given Citys all conquering form , I do NOT think MA s odd sidelinings of thoise two players has cost us the actual TITLE

        . But it certainly HAS cost us points, for certain!

        1. You are right Jon.City would most probably would have won in any case but I suspect we might have got closer.

  3. Letting Tierney move to Newcastle sends a signal that we have allowed out preferred choice of players continue to hunt us after, particularly letting Martinez move to Aston Villa. Tierney’s age and single-touch, fast and accurate passes fits into the Arsenal pattern of play that fans love to see. He has not been optimum because he has not had his fair share of game time after Zinchenko arrived. My suggestion is to retain him and rotate him with Zinchenko since we are back into Champions League.

  4. I do think the legend of Tierney has gotten a little out of hand, and I think he’s become a kind of reverse scapegoat for some – while he’s a better defender than zinchenko, he’s not played all that well when given the chance, and his straightforward style might not have helped as much as many seem to believe.
    He’s a likeable character and has a lot of qualities – fast, strikes a ball well with his left (good crosser), fairly strong, and a decent defender – but equally he’s quite limited. I don’t think he’s outstanding in any way except for pace. Plenty of wingers have gotten the better of him since he joined.
    If he could stay fit long enough to bed into a back four, or as a wing back or even on the left of a back three, I could see him becoming very good, good enough to play for a top side I expect, but ‘world class’, I’m not so sure.. Maybe, but he has a way to go.
    I think he’d do better at Newcastle than he would staying at arsenal. I wouldn’t want to strengthen them if we can help it, but overall it seems like a reasonable move if we can get a good transfer fee.
    Nothing against him – I wouldn’t be unhappy if he stayed at all, but i think the manager would need to do more to get the best from him.

    1. Your first paragraph captures most of what has to be said about KT. What is also interesting is that it can be argued that defensively Tomiyasu is a better LB than KT.

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