The BBC report that Arsenal’s second offer for Kieran Tierney has been rejected by Celtic.
It’s understood the Gunners put together a package worth up to £25 million for the 22-year-old but, despite it being a significant increase on our opening gambit, it’s still not been enough to persuade the Scottish champions to part with the left-back.
If Unai Emery is going to get his man, Raul Sanllehi is going to have to come up with something more tempting in the next three weeks.
The transfer window for Premier League clubs ends on 9th August, three days before we play Newcastle in our opening game of the new campaign.
It’s not actually clear whether Tierney will be fit for the start of the season. The player had an operation on a double hernia at the start of the summer and is now struggling with a separate pelvic injury. According to Neil Lennon, he’s not even ready to start running yet.
We are still in the $40M plus $1 Era, we can’t even push through a deal.. I hope we won’t be having a long season.. Looking at our pre-season team and comparing that to other teams, some scary shit
Still better than Uniteds team
If you think we are better than United with Bissaka and Maguire in their defence you are deluding yourself. If the squads stay as they are we will be fighting for 7th place.
If you think wan bissaka are anything other than overrated English dross you’re deluding yourself.
*and Maguire
Yet still better than our current RB (AMN) and Maguire better than all of our CBs.
Unless you’re one of those delusional fans that always thinks we have the best at home.
I think Wan Bissaka is a very promising young fullback, who did very well at Palace and will probably continue to improve; it is possible that he will be as good as Bellerin, though I am not sure of that. Because he is English, pundits omit all the notions of “promise” and “probably” and just treat his greatness as an accomplished fact. It’s pretty irritating.
I think he is promising but he will be ruined with all the expectations and pressure.
The difference is that before we were in the £40 million + £1 era, now we’re increasingly in the £1 era.
Hold on, wasn’t £25 million what they wanted? Can’t we get players at the full asking price now?! ?
I think from what I’ve heard, the instalments weren’t what they’re after.
Pelvic and hernia are often together. And while you can run after the hernia operation in a matter 10-20 days, this other issue can be a true problem for quite a while.
Weren’t all the reports saying Celtic, after our first bid, were holding out for something in the region of 25M?? Well they’ve got it so now what’s the issue?
Anyway, why does it always seem like it’s Arsenal being bent over a table with regards to transfers – both incoming and outgoing.
Yeah, they want more cash and less installments
I am really surprised no other club has seen us making a complete balls up of this deal and just given Celtic a call to offer them the cash they actually want for the player.
The thing that concerns me most about this deal is the guys injury record. As that can be the only reason why there is no other club trying to buy this kid if he is as good as everyone says he is.
“a package worth up to £25 million” may easily mean 5 million this season + two 5 million payments in two years + 5 million after 50 appearances + 20% of next sale fee. Which, considering our reported transfer budget and the fact we need to buy like 93 players, seems quite plausible.
Celtic probably want at least 20 million of it right now.
Yeah, it sounds like Celtic want fewer add-ons. You can’t even get teams on Football Manager to fall for that so easily anymore!
You have to consider the common denominating factor in all those deals; arsenal. If Arsenal are the ones constantly looking like they’re getting rogered, then the likely explanation is that unlike the others, we like to faff around with negotiations and offers. Whereas others just pay the asking price, we’re the ones constantly haggling, and it pisses people off. As seen with Suarez and even our Zaha offer.
Unfortunately, we have neither the financial, nor the footballing capital to make deals like this straightforward any more. I’m sure that in the past we have been guilty of missing out on players, by trying to excract a marginal advantage in the deal. Now though, given our limited funds, the lack of CL (and diminishing expectations of CL in the near future), no longer having the draw of Arsene’s reputation, with so many gaps to fill and having got ourselves in a position where these clubs know we are somewhat desperate, getting deals over the line, at a price we… Read more »
Not quite sure who previous regime is, hope your not referring to mr wenger, know he always hated spending money but did bring a lot of talent to the club, remember how stressed I use to get, how much have we paid out to backroom management, directors, scouts, etc,
Blame also has to be given to actual players who failed to lift any silverware, not giving any confidence to the people holding the purse strings.
But I’m still asking myself how we only have 45 m to spend, we just signed Adidas deal, we have a big stadium with most expensive tickets in league, TV money and we arsenal the 3rd biggest sopported team in league. We haven’t spent much money compared to other teams the last 10 years. Like how are we letting these cheeky cunts away with this?
I think that supporters of every other club, with the exception of Man City (and, for the moment, Liverpool) believe they are always taken advantage of in transfers, or miss out on the gems, or sell too low, etc. The Kronkes are genuinely shit owners, but most of the others are not much better.
Look at the clubs we are doing business with. Celtic, St Etienne, Crystal Palace. And despite our wealth of experience, they are all making us look a little silly.
Celtic won’t budge and the player doesn’t seem bothered with making waves. St Etienne have made us loan the player back. Palace are just telling us to fuck right off. It’s all a bit embarrassing as, without meaning to sound too colonial, we should be steamrollering these clubs and taking what we want.
Van Dijk came from Celtic
I think you missed the point.
Aubameyang came from St Etienne
Ian Wright came from Crystal Palace.
It’s about the player, not the team.
I think the issue is not attempting to buy players from smaller clubs, but failing to buy players from smaller clubs.
I don’t believe there’s really a difference. It’s not like the smaller clubs don’t know the value of a player in the market. If anything, these kinds of deals are their big pay-day, so they have to maximise them. Look at what Crystal Palace did to United with Wan-Bissaka. 50mil for a left back with one good season?
I agree. I just mean that it seems like we are a club lacking both the finances and status to pull these kinds of transfers off. And as transfers go, signing players from clubs a great deal smaller than ours should be a lot simpler than we make it.
Man United signed Wan-Bissaka over a month ago now. We are still stalling over a matter of two or three million pounds with Celtic. Not the behaviour of a large European club. What kind of a message does that send to the footballing world?
United signed W-B for 50 million pounds. 50 million. 50 million. That is absurd. What is funny is that everyone loves to hammer Arsenal on overpaying for players (wages, transfer fees), but during the summer window they can only bellyache that we aren’t simply going all-in and getting these players as recklessly as our rivals. Had we stumped up 25 million right away for Tierney, everyone would be hammering us for buying a player for that money who can’t even start the season. Arsenal have to behave with some responsibility in the transfer market — if Celtic are going a… Read more »
Really well spotted. One of the rare sensible comments here. Were are missing reality check in most of this media and agent built overhyped transfer talk. Let me tell you; Tierney doesnt help us a fish tit if our strategy and tactics remains in the level we saw towards end of the season. Christ what a mess it was. We have provenly decent squad, but we have to start to get the most out of it. Tierney as a “big signing” doesnt make me feel anything. I cant feel any rush about signing unproven injury prone left back from those… Read more »
It’s just there’s so much money around from TV and stuff they just don’t have to sell anymore and if they are they want crazy money for them.
Don’t worry, there’s still time to #Outsmartthemarket
Not sure whats more laughable. Our performance in the market. Or people losing their shit over it.
Silly season at its best.
No shits lost mate. Just giving an opinion on the article.
Losing your shit a month ago is one thing, but now, with a few week to go, it’s entirely appropriate, in the wider context. The more complaceent our fanbase, the worse it will get.
I have a feeling steamrollering is what’s caused all these issues, we can’t act like a big club if we have nothing to back it up.
Sadly, AFC hasn’t got enough footballing or financial clout anymore and the owner seems perfectly happy with that.
Money is all that matters to Kroenke and as long as AFC remains a Premier League club, his investment will continue to grow, without having to do anything.
How can that be true? If we drop to a mid table team our status goes, our ticket sales go, our star power goes, our worldwide fan base goes, our tv money and sponsorship deals deflate.
All these things affect the share price.
I just don’t understand how, from even a cynical business perspective, Stan is protecting his asset.
Seems bizarre doesn’t it
That is all true and I agree with you, but due to ever improving TV deals signed by the Premier League, as long as AFC stays in the Premiership then the club will, at the very least, hold its value, see Newcastle United.
Pretty much the same rationale goes for the stadium, it will steadily increase its value just by being there.
Stan’s biggest asset is our massive new stadium in the capital of England. Next is the fact we are in the Premier League, doesn’t matter what place, since a huge chunk of TV money is equidistributed. From his cold and detached perspective (aka because he doesn’t give a fuck about Arsenal) those are his priority and for the most part are not hugely correlated with future success. At least not to the point where he would think he needs to act to protect their value. It’s sad, but that’s how it is. I’m glad fans groups are increasing the pressure… Read more »
It’s about as stable an investment as you could imagine. Worth its weight in gold. This is not QPR or Barnet.
Slowly slowly creaping closer!
“It’s not actually clear whether Tierney will be fit for the start of the season. The player had an operation on a double hernia at the start of the summer and is now struggling with a separate pelvic injury. According to Neil Lennon, he’s not even ready to start running yet.”
peak Arsenal
So much of posturing by Celtic for a currently injured player!
Also, what happened to Sanllehi tough negotiation skills?
If he’s that good, they won’t have kicked him out of Barca.
He ain’t that good.
Barca is just… Barca.
It’s a pity that Sven Mislintat left. In the last summer with the budget of 50 mil, the way we closed deals were much better.
What tough negotiations? We sold that dude Vermaelen, Hleb & Song, let alone the dodgy Neymar deal that got him the boot from Barcelona.
I really wish we had someone else as Head of Football at the club, not this dinosaur, with his old-school old-boys-network mentality and scrupulous behaviour.
Yeah, too bad we couldn’t find a guy with a strong reputation for finding inexpensive talent that can not only feed the team with future superstars but also feed the coffers with massive profits. Someone with a cool nickname, like … Diamond Eye!
is this young whippersnapper even worth it?
ive been looking at squawka to compare his stats but it seems to be down
how good is he?
He’s really, really good. Rarely puts a foot wrong in defence or attack. He’s got energy, intelligence, and real technical ability. He may require an adjustment period to the English game but he’s performed admirably against top European clubs in the Champions League. I think he’s about as safe a purchase as Arsenal could make and, fitness permitting, would solve the left back position for years to come.
do you have a link at all that confirms this?
Trying to buy players on the never never but slowly turning into never ever
I dont want this kid at arsenal. If arsenal call u come. This whealing and dealing is crap
Poor Arsene Wenger. He was taking all the bullets for Arsenal football club and incurring the ire of supporters. What inefficiency is going on at this club eh? The player in question is even injured. Haven’t we had enough of the kalstroms and Suarez of this world? Hisses
Let’s not start this revisionism stuff of making it seem like Arsene didn’t have a hand in prior issues, this isn’t even the same executive team as before him. FYI, I wish Arseblog would post some excerpts from a recent data science in football book, translated by Honsteign. In it, there’s revelations that, contrary to blog and popular belief, statDNA did NOT recommend the likes of Mustafi and Elneny (Wenger choices), but in fact recommended NOT to buy the likes of Perez (a clear Wenger choice) and also recommended CB Manolas, but he rejected it. But I know that doesn’t… Read more »
What’s the name of this book?
Football Hackers by Christoph Biermann? Been trying to get my hands on that book, not available in my part of the world I am afraid.
Elneny as far as I am concerned has been a decent player for us, admitted he has his limitations when it comes to being adventurous but he’s been relatively solid, Mustafi was a world cup winner at the time so who can argue with that. My point exactly is that there have been serious cracks behind the scenes which were covered by Arsene and now that he is gone, our inefficiencies have been exposed.
He’s still a world cup winner. Lol
Will fans ever let go of the Wenger stuff? It’s over. He made mistakes, but he also made history for the club. We have a completely new management team in place that in no way resembles the Wenger era. They had a full season, and came up short. Please stop looking back a few years to find fault; we were two wins away from achieving something decent last year, and we flopped. We’d all be in a different mood around here with those wins — those are on the new regime. They’ll work harder to improve next season, so let’s… Read more »
Whenever you read a story about how Zaha would help us but we can’t really afford him, remember that Wenger thought he was too expensive at 9 million and refused to buy him.
Let us not talk about the players who were bought instead.
And remember when we spent pretty much the same amount on Mustafi as Southampton did on Van Dijk?
Yeah, thanks for the memories alright.
I don’t remember us spending the same amount on Mustafi as Southampton did on Van Dijk. I remember us playing over twice as much.
And, every other top club–not just Arsenal–let Southampton buy Van Dijk for relatively little. Isn’t the real question: How much did Liverpool pay Southampton for him?
Other top clubs didn’t spend the whole summer – and a shit-ton of money – trying to buy Mustafi.
Considering his injuries it’s urgent to let it be!
Fuck me, Celtic are having a laugh if they think Tierney is worth a large lump sum up front. There is no evidence the lad can stay fit for any length of time, any deal for him should be heavily stacked towards add ons. If they don’t like it then move on.
There’s no evidence he can stay fit for any length of time? He’s played 40 games or more each of the last 3 seasons, for a total of 135 games over that span. He played in 55 games just last season! Almost all of those appearances have been starts, as well, and he rarely comes off.
You should really check your facts instead of just regurgitating whatever you hear.
What really is all this noise about Tierney? Why is it sounding like we are so desperate about a left back when there are more urgent needs to attend to. We just signed Monreal to an extension; we have Kolasinac. So what the heck is this urgent need for Tierney?
Sampdoria’s Henderson has joined Lyon for 30m. Couldn’t we have invested in a CB like him, and also look to replace Ramsey?
I think we are getting the priorities wrong in the face of our reported measly transfer budget.i
Monreal is no spring chicken and was showing his ageast season. Kolasinac has shown his limitations as a player. We need an upgrade in youth and quality.
Exactly, Montreal and Kolasinac are our only options at left back – and neither of them can play in a back four. At least Socratis and Holding are actual central defenders.
Left back is pretty much our weakest position, until we fix that our defense isn’t gonna work no matter what.
If they flick back an offer that matches their asking price then it’s time to move on. Fuck Celtic.
time to walk away from this one and look at other targets. i would rather take a chance on a player from the championship (which is probably a better standard than the SPL anyway).
this kid is not worth more than 25M and we dont want to get dicked over with paying over the odds for another mediocre player.
The trouble is the management of this club seem to think we still have the same clout in signing players that we did peak Arsene Wenger when we can’t even offer CL football for another season. They need to stop messing about with this stupid bidding and offer the fucking asking price or another club is going to come in and gazump us !
We’re aiming for the Champions League with a mid-table Conference South business setup running the club. What could go wrong?
If he’s not ready to run yet and missed the end of last season why are we desperate to sign him now. Let Celtic get him fit and take the risks. Then buy him in the winter when we know he’s fit and had a decent run.
But at that point, aren’t going to be signing any players. Only loan players.
We’ll do our business in the summer.
I see more method in this Tierney madness. There’s no use getting this over the line asap , as he won’t be able to play in the first few matches anyway. Signing him today or on the deadline day makes no sporting difference to us.
While we string this deal along at out own pace , we might be looking to make deals for players that’ll either join the preseason straight away or where there is genuine competition for their signature.
“The player had an operation on a double hernia at the start of the summer and is now struggling with a separate pelvic injury”. This makes me certain that Arsenal will get their man
Arsenal DNA.
Just when we thought we’d got our first signing in the bag. Press reports about this story identify a problem that we’re likely to up against with other potential signings this Summer. It appears that Arsenal are attempting to spread out the cost of this transfer by extending the number of instalments and making a larger than usual part of the total payable as “add ons”. There’s nothing unusual about paying by instalments (although a recent high profile European transfer – Griezmann to Barca – was apparently all paid up front), but we want to spread out payments further than… Read more »
Nothing to do with Emery. I thought that was obvious at this point.
What a daft thing to write! Of course player sales are to do with Emery. I can assure you that he decides who he needs and who he doesn’t. Indeed, there’s a mini-fuss now about his decision to bring in Suárez on loan which was not universally popular in the backroom team. Granted, Emery doesn’t go out personally and tout them around clubs but the problem is that the players he wants to offload aren’t wanted at all, or for the money we’re asking, because of their current wages and/or they just aren’t good enough.
I’m bored with all this transfer bollocks now. If we can’t sign an injured LB from Scotland, who with better quality than we currently have is going to want to come to us? Seriously think we should write this season off, try to get rid of the deadwood, promote youth and see what happens. Worst that could happen is finish mid-table. At this moment in time, I’d take a nominal fee for Ozil, Miki, Mustafi, Koch, Elneny, Mavro, Jenkinson, most of what we paid for Xhaka and a decent(ish) fee for Kolasinac. All of the former aren’t Arsenal quality, or… Read more »
I agree. Taking a nominal fee (or perhaps even no fee) for high earners in particular – Ozil, Mustafi come to mind with a few others – may be the only way to get them off the books as the “buying” club could afford to offer increased wages – although not at the stupid level we’re paying – out of any transfer fee they saved. The truth is that Arsenal have saddled themselves with a fairly large number of players who are simply paid far too much to justify their consistency and/or ability. This nightmare won’t end until Arsenal can… Read more »
If they won’t sell they won’t sell, time to sit down and work it out in the next day or two or find somebody else. The last thing we want to do is faff around now for ANOTHER three weeks for no purpose.
Why did we wait weeks between putting in the first bid and the second?
Hope we have a plan B… who am I kidding though we probably barely had a plan A.
I am totally ok with not paying over the odds for fairly good, but really unproven players. This tierney bloke might be good, but if Celtic are holdong ransom over this left sided basic bulk, they can keep him and he can continue in one of the most over-rated rubbish leagues in the world. It ain’t the greatest trick anyhow to look good in rubbish scottish league. There are loads of similar quality left backs (=run, pass and decent stamina) in the Championship anyway. Celtic should be happy that someone ia interested about this mediocre left back anyways. Can you… Read more »
Is it so awful to consider us dropping to a mid-table club for a few years. Under Kroenke we will never be contenders and as he is a prick, so it would be a joy to see his wealth going down to toilet, before selling the club to someone who cares and is willing to invest with half the peice he paid.
Are you one of those who fancy us without CL football a few years back?
Do we really another expensive crock at this point in time.
‘Need’
Raul is learning that it’s a it’s a lot easier to throw your weight around in La Liga with Barca than in the PL with Arsenal.
Move on. Frankly perplexed why we are bothering yo add a Lback this summer. It can await one season down and Monreal is in good enough nick to cover meanwhile. Particularly with such a limited budget (and us yet to sell), we should be working on : 1) Cback 2) Winger And if we are (hopefully positioning for a more experience player than Saliba (not to mention more available) and the market to ween itself off price on the wide player, we should then be prepared to reserve 30m for the winger and 20-28m for the defender. I’m struggling to… Read more »
For me this is the point where we should consider giving up. £25m is a big chunk of the budget for a position that is, for me, far from the most important. I am a big fan of Tierney and think he would be a success here but I think CB and RW are both more important, and CM is at about the same level of urgency. Kolasinac may well improve defensively with a year of English football under his belt, and Monreal can still do a job. If getting Tierney is going to hold us back from making the… Read more »
Kola is with us 2 years now. Lol
Yeah, I know? 2 years is not an unreasonable adjustment period for a fairly young player.
Yes, I think you may be right although there are a few reports that we’re going back with a third offer – probably much the same as the other two just configured differently with a tad more cash up front.
The prices demanded by English and Scottish culbs remain riduculous. Good scouts pick up much better and cheaper players from abroad ( just remeber how Leicester picked up Mahrez and Kante).