Kieran Tierney’s fall down the Arsenal pecking order looks set to significantly decrease the transfer windfall Celtic could scoop.
The Scotland star made a £25million switch to the Emirates back in 2019 as the Gunners snapped up the decorated Hoops academy graduate in the expectation that he’d be their left back for years to come. Celtic inserted a 15 per cent sell-on fee in anticipation of another mega move should he continue his upward trajectory in red and white. However, things haven’t quite gone to plan and Tierney could be heading for the exit door for just £5million more than the Scottish Premiership champions received for him.
Mikel Arteta’s summer capture of Oleksandr Zinchenko has been bad news for Tierney, who finds himself playing second fiddle to the Ukrainian as Arsenal fight for a first league title in over two decades. But the Celtic favourite has been forced to play a bit-part role as Arteta goes head-to-head with former Manchester City mentor Pep Guardiola.
Zinchenko is firmly established as first choice left back, and Tierney is now considering his options. Newcastle are reportedly ready to offer him an escape route from North London. The megarich Geordies have their eyes on the Champions League spots this season and are short at left back.
Beanpole centre half Dan Burn has been deputising there to good effect, but Eddie Howe is keen to land a longer term solution and Tierney is available. The Magpies could get him for what in English terms is a knock-down price of £30million.
Such a fee would see Celtic bank £4.5m as part of the deal - not to be sniffed at, but not the eight figures they’d have been expecting when negotiating the clause four years ago. And neither the number they’d have seen when Tierney was the subject of interest from Real Madrid last year when £50m was being touted.
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