This week’s edition of the Arsenal Canon transfer review is brought to you by our lord and savior in the transfer season, David Ornstein. On Saturday, David Ornstein confirmed that a £15 million offer was rejected by Celtic for their left back Kieran Tierney. This confirms Arsenal’s long rumored interest in the Scottish left back, with further rumors surfacing that a second bid closer to the £20 million mark was also rejected. This next week will be the breaking point for this deal. Celtic look like they will be holding firm on their £25 million valuation of Tierney. That represents a significant chunk of Arsenal’s transfer kitty without sales. Let’s figure out if Tierney is worth that amount for Arsenal. Kieran Tierney has been predominantly deployed as a left back in a back four. Tierney’s transfer will be a clear sign that Emery wants to progress away from the 3-5-2 formation. Tierney profiles as an athletic 2-way full adept on contributing to both sides of the pitch. He has solid defensive numbers with the ability to contribute in the attacking third as well. Since joining Celtic in 2015 he has consistently produced 5+ assists each season in the SPL, with a total of 5 goals and 25 assists in 95 appearances in the SPL for Celtic. The 5’9’’ full back is well known for his positional awareness in the wide areas of the pitch. In last season’s Europa League campaign for Celtic, he averaged 1.7 tackles per game, 2.2 interceptions per game with the added bonus of having been dribbled past only 0.2 times per game. In the same competition Kolasinac averaged 1 tackle per game, 0.9 interceptions per game, and was dribbled past 0.7 times per game. If you add Tierney’s engine to these stats, he’s clearly an upgrade defensively on Kolasinac.
Although Tierney has a similar volume of attacking contributions to Kolasinac, he still has to improve the efficiency of his attacks. His passing accuracy is just 75.7% and he was dispossessed 1.2 times per game last season. However, at just 22 years of age, with his talent these are things that can be easily coached out of his game. The final point to discuss regarding Tierney is his injury history. In the past three seasons he’s spent 239 days out injured. By Arsenal’s standards that’s not an extraordinary amount, but Tierney’s injuries include two hip injuries, and a ruptured cruciate ligament. He is also just coming back from a groin surgery (May 7th) which took place to solve his recurring hip problem. The premier league is easily the most physically taxing league to play in. Arsenal know first-hand, the impact the pace and power of this league can have on the careers of injury prone players. Arsenal’s medical staff need to carefully assess whether Tierney prior injury record shows signs of possible chronic injury issues before the deal is approved. We can’t afford a repeat of the Denis Suarez debacle from January. Overall, I believe if Arsenal want to bring in a left-back to the club in this window given our budget Tierney is by far the best option. He almost perfectly fits the mold of full-back that Emery wants for his system and will certainly improve his overall game in the next couple of seasons. In theory, with this signing Arsenal could lock down the left-back position in their first team for the next 5-7 seasons or sell him on for a huge profit. After an initial bid was confirmed to have been rejected, the ball is fully in Arsenal’s court. Celtic have set a reasonable price tag for Tierney, and the player is keen on joining Arsenal. A failure to complete the deal from this point onward would represent a huge stain on Raul Sanllehi and his team’s ability to close deals for Arsenal. With the deal having progressed this far, I believe Arsenal will get the deal over the line. Finger’s crossed that by next week we’ll see Tierney holding up the shiny new Adidas Arsenal kit! Probability of Deal Happening: 4/5 Player Fit at Arsenal: 5/5 That’s all for this week’s edition of the Arsenal Canon Transfer Review. Who do you want us to cover next? Comment below and let us know!
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