According to the latest reports, Premier League side Arsenal are looking to agree on a deal with Scottish Premier League outfit Celtic for the transfer of Kieran Tierney in the summer transfer window to bolster their squad for the future. Tierney has been labeled as the younger Andrew Robertson and the Gunners will hope that he would make a similar impact for them as Robertson has done with Liverpool if he joins the Premier League club.
Unai Emery had quite a mixed bag in his first season with Arsenal after he replaced the legendary Arsene Wenger as manager of the club last summer. The 69-year-old Wenger was in charge of Arsenal for 22 long years and won a lot of silverware at North London including three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups during his reign.
The Frenchman wasn’t able to manage and adapt towards the back end of his career at Arsenal as the newer generation of managers were able to outwit and out tactic him. Even the most ardent of Gooners wanted Wenger out of the club because a new boss would add some fresh air and quality to the team.
Emery has done just that with Arsenal and implemented his philosophy into the club and most of his summer signings also hit the ground running at the start of the season. The 47-year-old guided Arsenal on a 22 game unbeaten run across all games this season in the early phase. At the end of the previous season, Arsenal suffered a major blip in form and they threw away a top-four spot.
The Gunners ended up finishing in fifth place on the Premier League table but had the chance to play Champions League football if they beat local London rivals Chelsea in the final of the Europa League. However, Emery’s men were humiliated 4-1 in the final in Baku and that indicated that Arsenal has a lot of work that needs to be done if they are to be competing for trophies on a regular basis.
One area that Arsenal has been abysmal is in defense as their back line has conceded plenty of goals which should not be associated with a big club. Now to rectify those mistakes, Emery wants to sign a left back that could succeed the aging veteran, Nacho Monreal. The Spanish left-back is already 33 years old and is entering the twilight years of his career and Arsenal are eyeing up a move Celtic’s Kieran Tierney as a replacement.
Tierney has already made 170 appearances for the Scottish Premier League champions in four years and at just 22 years of age, he has a bright future ahead of him. The left-back, who has been suggested to the next Andrew Robertson has registered four assists and one goal for Celtic last season and Celtic value Tierney at around €25m. However, the issue for Arsenal is that they have only a €45m transfer war chest this summer and Tierney would empty more than half of the funds in the reserves.
