Out of favour Kieran Tierney has reportedly accepted that he will need to leave Arsenal in January.
And that could finally see a dream return to Celtic inch closer with the Gunners said to be open to loaning the star out when the winter window opens. The Scotland defender has been sidelined through injury since returning from Euro 2024 after spending last season away from the Premier League giants at Real Sociedad. The 27-year-old is still battling back from injury but did resurface on the bench during Arsenal‘s Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain to support his teammates.
However, Riccardo Calafiori is Mikel Arteta’s go-to left back at this stage of the campaign after arriving from Bologna in the summer with Oleksandr Zinchenko set to challenge for a starting spot when he returns from injury. It leaves Tierney down the pecking order – and transfer guru Fabrizio Romano reports through the Daily Briefing that the left-back has agreed to leave the club in January.
It is said there is “no animosity” between Arteta and Tierney but it has been made “clear for a long time” that Tierney is out of the picture. It is claimed he will try to secure a loan move away in January and build up his game time to secure a permanent move away from North London at the end of the campaign.
Tierney himself has never ruled out a dream return to his boyhood club – admitting in June he would only consider a move back to Celtic Park if he was “100 per cent” fit. He told The Athletic: “I’ll be a different player to what I was, as I’ve been away for years, but I wouldn’t want to go back if I wasn’t feeling 100 per cent in my body. I know the intensity and the demand to win so, if I go back, it will be when I’m still feeling good.”
And former Celtic hero Aiden McGeady insisted that Tierney was destined to return earlier this year – if the club and defender could get the timing right. He said: “I think 100 per cent it’s going to happen at some point, Kieran Tierney returning to Celtic, but the timing on that remains to be seen.
“I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t play again for Celtic again, but the whole situation has surprised me because he settled in so well with Arsenal when he first arrived there. I don’t even think it was a loss of form, maybe down to the injury, and then all of a sudden Mikel Arteta changes his options and finds a different way of playing.
“I’m very surprised that it hasn’t quite happened for him at Arsenal but I can’t see him returning to Celtic just now. I still think he’ll want to do that slightly later on in his career. But it will 100% happen at some point.”
But given Tierney is at a career crossroads, could now be the right time? He is reportedly on £110k-per-week, but a loan move could see some of the heavy burden lifted off the Scottish Premiership champions and clear a path for a temporary deal.
Celtic are unlikely to be the only club considering a January approach though. And with Brendan Rodgers having Alex Valle and Greg Taylor at his disposal, another left-sided defender may not be at the top of his shopping list in the January sales.