According to The Time (£), Celtic have rejected a second bid from Arsenal for Kieran Tierney.
The Scottish champions knocked back an initial offer of £15m for the left back, after which the Gunners were said to be confident they could find a compromise, but it seems improved terms haven’t yet been acceptable.
The report doesn’t say how much the new bid was, but suggests that the Scottish champions are holding out for something closer to their £25m valuation than is currently on the table.
With a glass half full look at this, it a least shows the two clubs are negotiating, and if we’re serious then we’ll test their mettle further.
The cost of the transfer could be offset by the sale of Sead Kolasinac, as posited in today’s Arseblog, as £25m would represent a significant chunk of the summer’s transfer budget.
It’s all very public now with Celtic, so we either push it to get it done, or move on, but an inability to do a deal for the player would reflect poorly on Raul Sanllehi in his first summer in charge of football matters.
Although he’d be a very decent addition to the squad, we should be spending the whole budget on one world class center back. Not, several decent stop gaps… i.e I’d rather have just Virgil van D than both Roberts and Alexander-arnold combined
To be honest id rather spend on 2 ex world class dc who are in a similar position to kos and get by on those for a season on rotation to keep them burning out and thus leave room for some younger exciting players. Short term absolutely, but it should be enough to get back to champs league and then build up.
Mate I would like mila kunis but unfortunately we have to play the cards dealt. She is out of my league and VVD is out of our league. Although if I could just meet her……….
Yeah I totally get he’s out of our league, it was a very bad example. I should have said, I’d rather have Tony Adams than Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn. I think if we are spending a large portion of our budget on a defender it shouldn’t be a full back. You don’t build a defense around a full back.
On another note payments will likely be staggered over a couple of seasons. I.e 10m now and the rest in instalments over 3-5 years. We desperately need a left back, along with another centre half, a midfielder or two and a winger. Nabbing Kieran Tierney would be a good start!
But having weak full-backs around a decent CB tends to weaken the CB(s). We currently don’t have a LB who can play regularly, this signing makes perfect sense. It’s a genuine investment for the future that will pay immediate dividends. It’ll also strengthen our current CBs.
I do agree we need a quality CB, not sure we need to blow ALL our budget on one player though. If we did that you know he’d do his ACL by September.
I don’t disagree with anything you say. IMO we need a world class CB. It’s what has been missing for years now. We need to make the right signings, not just any signing.
Tierney is hardly “any signing”, he’s one of the best young fullbacks around.
Dude this is the internet follow the rules..Just say you had her ..
I did.
Also… I wouldn’t be surprised if Mila Kunis couldn’t do a better job at centre back than Mustafi has.
She would be a good distraction
There would be no more empty seats at Emirates thats for sure!
What do you mean by “Mila Kunis couldn’t do a better job at centre back”, if she does a good job at center forward then it is great.
Damn it Jackie
I’d have Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson at arsenal. That however is incredibly beside the point.
If your family needs rice chicken and veggies you don’t go out and spend it all on a six pack of Carlsberg.
Well……
?
Beer is food..everyone knows that
Honestly I think the cb thing is overdone at this point.
1 calum chambers
2 rob holding
3 Laurent kaucsielny
4 sokratis
5 Bielik
6 mavropanos
7 mustafi
I think sokratis chambers holding and kos work, with mavropanos and Bielik can prove something. Mustafi we keep on the books, hidden, so as to have home never play again. So that’s 6 + 1 that should never play again. How many do we want?
Not sure I’m comfortable with Mustafi as 7th choice center back
I’d actually tend to agree with you on this. Whilst we don’t really have a world class centre back in his prime, we do have enough depth and a mix of experience and talent. Would be lovely to pick one up for peanuts, but failing that miracle… Frankly we could improve most in this area via coaching. I don’t really trust Emery to coach a good defence from his track record, but we are certainly not getting the best out of our current defenders and that’s on the coach. If we could do as well as at least a mid-table… Read more »
What is not on the coach ?
I really disagree. We have NO options at LB at the moment. At least not I a four at the back line-up. Way too often we had to go to three at the back which results in a need for further CB’s. By having great options at LB and RB we can go back to playing 4 at the back and decrease our need for CB’s (in numbers at least) And further more. In a situation where money is really short having a LB that can operate in that system defensively and still have the offensive quality (like Bellerin) will… Read more »
I may sound crazy, but maybe we should take a punt on Dani Alves… Free agent.
Get it done!
On a personal note this represents a slight dilemma for me. Each season I change my arseblog comments username depending on who’s on the AFC roster. Normally I’d not bring this up, but I’m genuinely torn as whether to go for;
Tierneysaurus Rex
or
An Act of Tierney (and take on a pantomime villain persona)
Needless to say this is a huge decision, and I feel Arsenal and Celtic are selfishly overlooking my needs during their negotiations. But, hey ho…
Yours sincerely,
The Real Victim
Tierriffic.
If he signs I hope he doesn’t tier(his)ney!
Nope, I’m reaching too far now haha
Sorry, I get giddy when we seem close to signing a decent player.
Giddiness is a rare emotion!
Tierney around bright eyes.
Guess they are also not a fan of the £1 incremental bids either.
Haha can you imagine our board shopping at £land and taking half a day to get nine items:
Checkout clerk: “Sir, you can just get a basket, put all your items in as you shop and then come to the tills… rather than picking each individual item bringing it to the tills and then guaging our reaction as to whether to pick another item..?”
Raul: PIMP SLAP! …places additional Toblerone on the counter, then looks for approval.
Haha can you imagine our board shopping at £land and taking half a day to get nine items:
Checkout clerk: “Sir, you can just get a basket, put all your items in as you shop and then come to the tills… rather than picking each individual item bringing it to the tills and then guaging our reaction as to whether to pick another item..?”
Raul: PIMP SLAP! …places additional Toblerone on the counter, looks for approval.
I hate it when clubs disrespect us by not accepting our initial bid.
Feel like someone else is just gonna be the required fee while we mess about counting the penny’s,
Gonna pay**
So good ole Arsenal
Sounds like Celtic is using the media to rile up the Arsenal fanbase and perhaps put Sanhelli under pressure to negotiate closer to Celtic’s valuation and terms. I’m sure a deal will be struck eventually and we’ll get our new LB
Liverpool bought Robertson for 8.5 mil…
Us Londoner’s get charged extra for EVERYTHING
Robertson was an unheard of player at the time, he has developed into a great player. Tierney already is a great player.
Grate player in a shit league
They have Michael Edwards…
And to bring other clubs forward
Please don’t cock this up, gentlemen!
Not sure it will look bad if we say no to the price. Player isn’t worth £25m. Has a terrible injury record and plays in a league where their transfer record is £19 million.
Let’s all just calm down
League that helped produce VVD
Doesn’t mean you should pay 25 million
And Robertson who was let go by Celtic as Tierney was coming up behind him and deemed a better player
“Has a terrible injury record”
Wow, had no idea so I checked his Wiki.
Yup, injury prone… risky buy.
As a Glaswegian Arsenalite, I feel like that Liverpool fan in the infamous snapchat post that was crying and saying ‘Just want to sign van Dijk’, except I’m not ginger and I hate Liverpool. Come home to Arsenal, Tierney.
Tierney doesn’t want to leave Celtic … Celtic won’t sell him for another 2 seasons
That’s what i was thinking too.
We haven’t made him mutiny against Celtic first that’s why it’s so difficult to get this deal done at a fair price.
Poor skills from Raul Sanllehi.
I am actually worried about Edu Gaspar too. He was the first man Sanllehi chose not Monchi.
Great analytical skills
Have we tried £15,000,001 ?
That usually seems to do the trick. It’s a glitch in the footballing transfer market
“as £25m would represent a significant chunk of the summer’s transfer budget.” Didn’t blogs go out of their way in a previous podcast to explain that transfer budget doesn’t exactly work like that? That’s structured over period of time, factoring amortisation, etc.? I don’t think there’s anything in there to say we have to sell Kola to make sure the budget goes through. I know Kola is heavily flawed, but I hope he doesn’t get the “Mustafi Propaganda” effect; where arsenal media focuses on him so much, fans lose all sense of rationalist and believe Kola is the cause for… Read more »
Yeh Mustafi was sh!t as ususal in the Europa final..
Contributed nothing
Reality check you wouldn’t even have the decency to put ‘I’ in shit
All depends on Celtic accepting staggered payments in the first place, we’ll within their rights to want a fair chunk of cash for KT. The new transfer team will do well to get this one done, not holding my breath though
It tax efficient to accept staggered payments
£20 mill on Tierney. Then flog Kolasinac for similar. Left back upgrade imo.
three factors concerns this transfer going through. 1. Being the last defender celtic let go for 14m ultimately became the worlds biggest defender fee 70m to Liverpool 2 years later from Southampton (van dick). 2. We are still considered a club an easy touch given our history of buying big and selling low and paying wages way beyond players performance worth. 3. Scotland thinks because they have a premier league it’s players are the same as England premier league players when in fact they are around mid/lower table championship if that. 4. ok I only said 3 but it’s a… Read more »
“ok I only said 3 but it’s a given fact Scottish people are considerably tighter than a camels arse in a sandstorm.”
I want my joke, and views, back.
I have to admit, “van dick” made me chuckle in a “I’m 11 years old” sort of way.
aren’t we all
Well had they known how big a dick he’d become, they would have asked for more, and he wouldn’t have ended up at Southampton. Shit happens.
Fuck Raul. Guy seems as inept as our last bunch of clowns in charge of transfers. Can we hire anyone with a set of balls? Players? Management? Front office? This team has been slowly turning into a fucking bunch of weenies for years. And now they’re thinking of selling Kolasinac, our freight train, one of the few that gives us any kind of meat in the muscle dept? This is getting fucking ridiculous. We get bullied on the field and in transfers. GROW SOME FUCKING BALLS.
Chill dude. It’s just the usual back and forth between clubs in the media to pressure one another. Just let it play out and don’t blow a gasket just yet 😉
Seems like a lot of media, almost too much for one deal.
All this fuck the world shii doesn’t really work- JAY-Z
He’s seriously injury prone, he’s missed 239 days in the last 3 seasons…. and there’s reports of £80,000 p/w… We could really do without spending over half our budget on another injury prone player on a 5yr contract, earning an absolute mint. We’ve already got Bellerin+Holding coming back from serious injuries, and what tends to happen is that forces us into overplaying other players, and you just end up in a cycle of having an overstretched squad of injury prone players, and being forced into playing young players out of position, which usually ends up killing their confidence, and leaves… Read more »
What did we offer this time – £15000001? ?
Maybe give them money+mustafi?
Worth a try…
Then they would want £30 million. Mustafi tax.
I mean, we kinda have surplus and need to offload some Players. Why don’t give them less money but two Players like mustafi or elneny and Loan them either smith-rowe, bielick or any of the youngsters. It should be more than enough to cover for the money needed to buy Tierney right away
Just pay up man
Arsenal fans now when Sanhelli is in charge : Lol this is made by the media. Sanhelli’s an angel
Arsenal fans when Wenger was incharge : Burn him at the stake!1!1!
One man shouldn’t run an entire corporation
Isn’t that what Sanhelli is doing that though? According to the fans, he is incharge of everything related to football including the signings and players
Hmm, interesting.
I thought Sanllehi was good or at least not that bad.
Perhaps, we were wrong about this guy. Barca are just… Barca.
A first bid rejected can be accepted but a second one got rejected after 2 days? Now that’s not good.
Don’t get me wrong, i expect we can finalise this deal at 18-20 mil and no more.
25 mil is too much for this youngster!
Sigh. Sven Mislintat would have done a better job in spotting young talented at low and negotiating.
Completely fine with 25 m if we can recoup that money by selling Kolasinac, which I doubt. Tierney and Bellerin sound like top quality FBs!
I think He’s a good choice to succeed Monreal. That said I feel we are jumping the gun and grasping at straws slightly. There seems little coherent strategy just going for what is in front of you. We have a limited budget and paying for a Lback which could be dealt with a summer down seems frankly incoherent. Considering we still have to raise an added 20m in sales to even pay for better quality players, 40-60m won’t get you much particularly if you spend over 15m on a Lback as well when Cback, wide player and a CM remains… Read more »
£25m for a player who is as good as Tierney is now and how good he will be is a drop in the ocean. Yes, it is a huge chunk of our pathetic transfer budget. But get the deal done before another club comes in to grab a bargain. Worry about the budget after, it will be on the powers that be to generate more funds by getting the deadwood flops out off the club and off our wage bill. People do not seem to realise what a superb signing this young Scot will be! Stop looking for wingers like… Read more »