There has been persistent frustration that Arsenal have been unable to get good value for money when it comes to player sales. Sporting director Edu Gaspar has come under considerable pressure from supporters to make this summer a successful one regarding both incomings and outgoings.
One name that has dominated discussions lately is Kieran Tierney. The Telegraph report that any potential fee would be upwards of £30million to secure the Scotland international's services from Arsenal.
This fee has caused something of a stir amongst the Gunners faithful however with many feeling anything less than £40m or even £50m in some cases is too small a fee for the left-back. With this is mind, football.london takes a look at the reasoning behind the valuation of Tierney and why getting as much as £40m for him would represent some excellent sales business by the club.
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The best place to start is to understand the mitigating factors associated with Tierney’s value. Were the 25-year-old, who turns 26 this coming June, playing regularly in the Premier League for a club like Arsenal, as he has at some stages of his Arsenal career, then the value would surely exceed the £40m-mark.
However, Tierney has managed just four starts in the Premier League this season. The presence of Oleksandr Zinchenko, who arrived for an upfront fee of £30m in the summer, has considerably limited the Scot’s chances.
Furthermore, Mikel Arteta has even opted to select Takehiro Tomiyasu at left-back over Tierney on four occasions from the start including the impressive 3-2 win over Liverpool. A player this out of favour certainly sees his value drop and is perhaps the key reason for other Premier League sides being alerted to his potential availability.
At Arsenal, he has suffered six separate injury problems which have meant he’s missed a total of 48 matches. These have been spread across three seasons where he missed 19 games in 2019/20, 16 in 2020/21 and 13 in 2021/22; with each tending to occur at crucial stages of the season.
It has been this level of absence which is in part a reason why the club invested in Zinchenko. The last factor is he does not count toward the homegrown quota either.
It’s easy to make comparisons to other left-backs that have moved in recent seasons and question why Tierney wouldn’t command similar fees. Marc Cucurella joined Chelsea for a reported guaranteed fee of £55m plus add-ons.
The differences, in this case, are that Cucurella when he moved was a regular feature in the Brighton starting eleven, with a near-perfect injury record. He has missed just one game in his career which was when he featured for Barcelona B in the 2017/18 season.
Brighton did not want nor needed to sell but the bid from Chelsea became too good to turn down. The same can be said for Ben Chilwell who also signed for the Blues for a reported £45m.
A homegrown England international player who featured regularly for Leicester City prior to the move. Although he suffered a serious knee injury with Chelsea, his issues with the Foxes were minor and beside an ankle issue in 2016 he never missed more than three successive games for the east midlands side.
Then if we return full circle to Zinchenko. Arsenal signed the player who would replace Tierney in the side for a figure of £30m plus £2m in add-ons less than a year ago.
Out of favour at a side at the top of the table, with a history of injury problems and not homegrown. Sounding familiar?
Arsenal will hope that they can extract maximum value from the potential sale of Tierney with a figure in excess of £30m the aim. Yet, expectations of a fee beyond the £40m-mark based on everything covered here appears unlikely and certainly, should it not happen, no reason for Edu to be under the microscope once again.
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