Celtic boss Neil Lennon says Arsenal are yet to lodge a third offer for Kieran Tierney but he wouldn’t be surprised if another was forthcoming before the transfer window shuts for Premier League clubs on Thursday.
The Bhoys are reported to have rejected the first bid of £15 million and a second that matched their £25 million asking price but was made up of add-ons.
Unai Emery admitted earlier in the week that he wants defensive reinforcements even though he’s still hopeful of retaining wantaway captain Laurent Koscielny.
On the eve of Celtic’s first game of the new season against St Johnstone, Lennon was asked about Arsenal’s interest and the potential for another approach.
“Normally these things tend to happen again,” he said.
“I imagine there will be offers coming in. For certain individual players, the asking price hasn’t been met and the clubs know what the asking price is. So until that valuation is met then thankfully we don’t have a decision to make.
“If we’re talking about Arsenal, they have five or six days to come back in with a revised offer.
“The closer it comes to the end of the window and then something crops up, we are prepared for that aspect of it, but it’s not welcome.”
Tierney remains sidelined by a long-standing osteitis pubis problem and will miss the start of the season, whichever club he’s contracted to.
Tierney has missed 300+ days in 3 years, and he’s only 22.
I expect we’ll sign him…. but I think we should dodge this bullet.
We’ll only find stability at the back, if we find consistency in our selection.
We’ve got Dominic Thompson coming through, I’d be happy to give him a run in the cups + Europa.
In the last 3 seasons Tierney has made 40, 55 & 40 appearances for Celtic. That doesn’t sound anywhere near as terrible an injury record as the way you put it.
He’s a better player than Kola and Nacho (now) never mind Thompson.
But wait till he joins us. He will be injured half the season. We have the worst luck with injuries.
Under this logic, we shouldn’t sign anybody because they’d be injured for half of the season.
Under that logic we should sign twice the number of players so everyone can play one half of the season. 😛
Holding up the ‘Indians good at maths’ stereotype like a boss.
“Alexa, what is ‘classic Arsenal optimism’?”
Hip problems Jun 17, 2019 Aug 12, 2019 56 days Groin Surgery May 7, 2019 Jun 9, 2019 33 days Hip Injury Apr 19, 2019 May 2, 2019 13 days Cals Sclerosis Mar 31, 2019 Apr 5, 2019 5 days Hip Injury Dec 7, 2018 Feb 22, 2019 77 days Knock Nov 15, 2018 Nov 22, 2018 7 days – Calf Injury Mar 16, 2018 Apr 7, 2018 22 days Ruptured ankle ligament Oct 28, 2017 85 days This is his injury record. He’s also currently injured, has no pre-season behind him, and we also have Holding+Bellerin coming back from… Read more »
Since when did we judge a player’s injury record on ‘days missed’ ? The appearance stats I posted are far more relevant surely by any logical standards.
He has had problems with his chips whichhquite a few young players who have played a lot get. Sort that & he’s not so ‘injury prone’ at all.
Just to note : only 5 Arsenal players made more than 40 appearances last season.
Hips even !! I think it was Andre Santos who had problems with chips.
too true
This ‘300 days’ thing is just another BS media line, if you accumulate all the days missed through injuries, illness and niggles an awful lot of players his age would have easily made triple figures in absent days. He was thrust into the Celtic starting 11 very young and has largely been overplayed, hence the types of injuries he’s had. And he really hasn’t missed many games; 2015-16: 33 games played 2016-17: 40 gp 2017-18: 55 gp 2018-19: 40 gp And we’d be less reliant on him than Celtic with Kolasinac and Monreal easing the burden of responsibility. Personally I… Read more »
I’m not making a judgment based on his ability, I haven’t got a clue, Scottish football is complete w*nk But his injury record I posted above, is a real concern for a young lad. There’s patterns… we’ve had the same problems with Ox, Wilshere, Diaby, Rambo, RVP only had 1 season with us without breaking down at some point. We broke Cazorla, who IMO is our greatest player of the Emirates era, because he had too many injury prone players playing in the same position, meaning we overplayed him, and ruined the best years of his career. How many times… Read more »
I know what you mean, Rich. I’ve had pubis issues for years now. My wife says it’ll go away when I stop with the whiskey, but who wants to do that, I ask you?
He’s not “risky AF”, most of those injuries you’ve listed are directly related to being overplayed and hold little long-term concern. Ramsey, Eduardo and Diaby etc largely had their careers stall due to the severity of their injuries, ie full leg/ankle breaks, and the recurring issues due to the other side compensating during the injured sides’ rehabilitation are standard, it takes a long time to recuperate from such nasty injuries (years ago you didn’t come back from those injuries at all). Whilst you have listed a good amount (nice researching by the way, I really appreciate it when someone can… Read more »
Hip issues will cause misalignment of the pelvis / saecrum. This misalignment can then make you susceptible to all manner of injuries like hamstring and calf problems.
It’s a question of biomechanics and then muscle weakness. These things are reoccurring too..
You clearly know more than me, and I don’t doubt for one second a single thing you say. Though looking at the length of disruption caused it appears one of the three hip issues was less than two weeks, implying it was potentially just a ‘knock’/bruising/trapped nerve/dead leg. The other two are more worrisome but even so one lasted just a month and a half, whilst the other was two and a half months. Although certainly noteworthy, would this not suggest that the issues weren’t necessarily a long-term concern?
YouTube highlights aren’t exactly a good indication of a players overall quality…..
Walcott’s highlights make him look like a world beater, and Mustafi does a lot of good stuff… it’s just the regularity of his brain farts, and his tackling is erratic at best… but you could easily cook up a video that makes Mustafi look like the defensive Messi…..
Tierney seems to have winning pedigree and a good amount of experience, not sure why we’re the only ones sniffing around though?
Suppose time will tell.
I wasn’t referring to those youtube compilations with awful music, actual Champions League highlights, or even better, the full games if you can find somewhere to download/stream them. I just wasn’t expecting you to check out the full games on my recommendation, hence highlights. I’ve watched quite a lot of Celtic matches in the past few years and I can certainly vouch for his quality, so too many people in the footballing world. He really is worth watching ? It is strange why there isn’t more interest but neither Liverpool or City need him, Spurs are after Sessegnon, Chelsea have… Read more »
Top post this – I’m on board
That’s where Emery’s management skills, and Arsenal’s fitness team and doctors have to play a big part in his future development.
How many days has Holding missed and how old is he? Same question about Bellerin.
Bellerin missed 83 days in 4.5 seasons, before doing his cruciate ligament.
I don’t have the stats for Rob Holding, but he’s never been particularly injury prone.
We’ll need to manage Bellerin + Holding, we don’t need another young lad who we need to treat with kid gloves
Transfer window slamming shut soon. If they’re not satisfied with 25mn, we should up the ante with 30mn + Mustafi and everyone wins.
If we want them to take Mustuffup, probs have to make it 40mil….
Love to miss over 300 days of work by the age of 22 due to weekends and bank holidays.
Haha that might actually be possible if you were born on 29th February.
What do you define as missing 100 days a year as? Just curious
One hell of a hangover.
This is getting stupid… I hope hope hope that if this guy comes it’ll be good business…
That last line has me increasingly skeptical that we’re really that serious about him.
He’s clearly a talent, but to make a guy with a long-standing injury issue the club’s left back of the future? That can’t be the plan, surely.
Long standing injury issue? The plan? You must be new around here.
Ya heard? We’re a real club now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBTwgUwf76A
Looks unlikely to me.
happy to be proved wrong, but given his injury history and apparent lack of other suitors, I’m not entirely convinced this offer should be improved.
That is the (injured) elephant in the room, isn’t it. Looks like we’re making an effort to get him though.
I want to commend Andrew Allen for not saying that the transfer window will “slam shut” on Thursday. Now, if we can only avoid “crashing out” of the Europa League.
Totally unrelated, but I would WAY rather Nicolas Pepe + 8M quid leftover than an 80M quid Harry Maguire
Yes … (very) probably. I’m always a tad cautious though until we’ve seen a player from abroad, particularly expensive ones, actually kick a ball or several in the EPL. Pepe is obviously a good player, but we need to see how he manages week in and out (particularly on those wet, windy, winter evening games at places like Burnley, or wherever).
Do they not have winter in France? Asking for a friend.
Even a player who has played in the Premier League before can still look shite when they move to a different club. Look at Fellaini (Everton to United), Torres (Liverpool to Chelsea), Sanchez (Arsenal to United), Drinkwater (Leicester to Chelsea) etc.
Though of course a player in Maguire’s mould would be very useful indeed. Better call Raul!
I don’t think we should. He will be a decent signing but we have priority FAR greater at CBack and we should be putting all remaining available resource t o get the best money can buy, not compromise bc we have to spend on a position that frankly can await a season down. Also whilst we have already BOTH Kolasinac and a still relatively decent Monreal in reasonable nick, I thought young Thompson wasn’t bad as a third choice. That said, I suppose the thinking is if we get say Rugani on (yet another) loan, we have plenty of cash… Read more »
Or maybe there is a plan and they don’t want to overpay for a stop gap CB right now. We’ve bought a Mustafi before that didn’t work out. Buying just to buy doesn’t make sense and Arsenal don’t have the money to do that. Getting a LB now who is available for a decent price makes a lot of sense.
Sometimes there just isn’t a better option available for the money we have to spend.
Auba-Laca-Pepe
Ozil
Guendouzi-Torriera
Tierney-Holding-Sokratis-Bellerin
Leno
Oh my goodness, what a window we will have had if this all falls into place. Raul’s big plan and Josh’s excitment maybe weren’t as empty as they sounded, and hats off to them.
#we care, it’s now clear that you do too ❤️
Ceballos or Willock or Guendouzi would be fine for me as well
Ceballos must start…Özil bench
Ozil is here for another 3 years unlike Ceballos. We should try to see if Ozil can be inspired to put a stellar season and some consistency out. Ceballos is a very good option if we can’t gear up Ozil but he’s only here for 1 season
We’ve been patiently waiting for the midfield butterfly to be “inspired” (at 350k/wk) for 3 years now…
Agree. Ozil’s a senior player who acts like a child. Sadly the Prof pampered him.
Personally, I think Emery’s done with him. I think CeBallos plays, Pepe plays, Laca plays and so does Auba. No room for Ozil. Not in the first 11 anyway
I’d like to see Ceballos partner Torreira actually. So both Ozil and Ceballos can start. Guendouzi and Willock subs.
Mouth watering and could happen in some games.
Getting Özil firing again would be awesome and Xhaka would be the man to be sacrificed in your setup which Im not against but I think for Emery Xhaka is first name on team sheet and who knows with our new guys he may get some extra time on the ball .
That’s a light weight midfield. Save Özil for the home games, he’s rarely been up for a scrap in a rough away game.
I’ve decided to give Özil another chance with the Pépé signing. But, if he still can’t consistently perform after playing with that front 3, he definitely needs to be moved on.
It’s funny that people are talking as if Ozil is a guaranteed starter despite how he’s preformed over the last few seasons, despite the fact that we’ve been desperate to sell and Emery obviously doesn’t rate him and despite the fact that a 4-2-3-1 wouldn’t suit many of our players, especially a Aubameyang/Lacazette partnership. It’s almost like in Men in Black when they erase people’s memories…
Mesut Ozil’s contract expires in June 2021 which means Ozil is here for another 2 years, not another 3 years. To me, this means the incentive to try yet again to “inspire” Ozil is minimal from Emery’s perspective.
True! If Ozil cant find insperation and form when auba and pepe roams the flanks then there is nothing more to say. Any good quarterback would love world class runners and now we have two of them. Pretty good at football too.
Looks good – on paper, but I’m waiting for the ball to be kicked “in anger” first. Let’s see where we are, and how we’ve done, after, say, a dozen EPL games? We’ll have an (early) idea by then about the new look team, won’t we.
Peppalaccazang!!!!!
Celitic bought a left back at the start of July. I doubt they’d want 2 solid left backs on their books. They are expecting to sell, they are just playing hard ball trying to squeeze every £ they can out of Arsenal
Yep, just what we appear to be doing with the prospective sale of Kos – although I suspect that Celtic stand a much better chance of doing it.
I believe French window is open much longer. Celtic are running out of days to squeeze more out of their injured LB.
Depends how much we really want him I guess. I don’t think we’ll sell Kos for the money we’re reported to want – no matter how long the French transfer window in open.
With the extra few quid we’ve just got in for Asano and Beiliek I expect we probably made a revised offer today. Now just for a new CB and my god what a window his has been.
Osteitis pubis? Fancy smancy Andrew. Just call it swollen bits and be done with it. We are all family here. ?
Remember when Arsene told us that Wilshere was out for six weeks with an “inflamed bone”? I mean, six weeks? Who was he kidding. A quick round of antibiotics is all I’ve ever needed.
Seems we’re really going for Tierney, doesn’t it. It will be interesting to see what the final terms are, if we do sign him. Earlier reports suggested that it was the instalments that were the sticking point. Now it’s add-ons according to the article. Looks like there will be a new offer – although I guess we’ll still want to keep the up front money as low as possible (but higher than previously).
This is one of the most drawn out transfer processes I can remember us having in recent times. I guess he’s not likely to be fit for the start of the season so it’s not like he’ll be able to do much by way of acclimatising to our style of play etc as he’s not fit enough to do that yet. The only reason we can’t have made a bid already is due to considering different options, otherwise we know what it’s going to take to get him, by all accounts he is keen to come to us so I… Read more »
Mustafi was twice as drawn out ?
Call me old fashioned but I don’t like signing players who are injured. Hit pause, let him get fit with Celtic again, monitor his progress then go back in for him in January if he’s back to 100%.
In the meantime, get a CB in before the deadline.
Ha. Pubis.
I love Lennon I think… oh no wait, I think he’s a total see you next tuesday
Aye, worst part of this saga is having to hear from this knucklehead.
Well there is Ryan Sessegnon. Idk why Arsenal are not after him!!!
Been wondering that myself
And what happen to the 10 mil rumour about Cisse the Giant from Olympiakos – was well impressed with him when we played them. Stood out as never giving up in a shite defence
Ryan isn’t that good a defender, he really wants to be a winger, as has played there more recently. Think we are set for wingers with Nelson, Iwobi, Martinelli who all play on the left, hence Sessegnon isn’t a proiority, he didn’t have a great season in the Prem as well last season.
I think it’s pretty much a done deal that he’s headed for that shit trophyless lot down the road for the same price of $25 million that Tierney is going for and he was not good at all last year at Fulham. Very young but very much looked like a Championship player. He might improve but he’s an even bigger risk than Tierney.
I really don’t like this Lennon fellers style. For that alone I wouldn’t do business with him.
I don’t know what it is but his face reminds me of Leatherface’s mask in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, only bleached to the whitest white.
I don’t understand this.
Why are we going after another left back at this point when we have 2 already? He might be better than the 2 we have or he might not be. He hasn’t been tested yet. We are really going to transition nacho to Cb? Sokratis, chambers, nacho, mustafi, mavrap and holding depending on his comeback from major injury.
I don’t really know how good Tierney is, but I’d argue we’re quite uncertain at LB mainly because towards the end of last season Monreal looked old, really old. As in his legs looked gone, at least in terms of carrying a full load. It’s not a criticism of him, but reality when it comes to an athlete’s body (or any body) at about that age.
He’s a really good player, but he’s had repeated hip-related issues already at the age of 22, including the one currently keeping him sidelined. I would hope any medical is done really carefully and they consider the results seriously, rather than just treat it as a formality.
The stuff about how many days he’s missed is pretty meaningless, but when a player that young already has recurring issues with a particular body part, it’s usually going to get worse over time, not better.
it’s like they’re reminding us/ calling out to us. ”hey, you guys coming back in?”. let’s figure out a CB (whether experienced old stop gap or a goodish unearthed gem) and figure if we want this guy.
how about we offer mustafi and they give us 10 mil? i think the board will agree to it paying over 5 years.
Not relevant to topic but does anyone know of any clubs scoping Welbeck? It’s just that he’s fit and free and absolutely no news!
Yeah, it is weird that. I’m sure he’ll have had good offers. Apparently from suspect news sources it’s his wage demands that are putting people off. They say he wants 100k a week. I can see him ending up at West Ham or Everton or somewhere like that in the end.
I expect him to sign. Selling Tierney is pretty much the only option Celtic have as it makes no difference to their prospects. Whether short, medium or long term they’re going to win the league or at worst finish second and continue to make no significant impression in the Champions League. As a club they’re not stupid and they know that whenever they get a player who attracts top 6 premier league interest the only question is how much money they can squeeze out of the buying team. Lennon going public is designed to push the price up not scare… Read more »
Is this the only left fullback in the fucking world or something? Tiresome.
Lennon is such a cunt, would love to turn the tables on him down the road.
The Sun is reporting we may end our pursuit of Tierney as he now faces up to eight weeks out of action through injury. Apparently, he’s suffering with pain in his groin and stomach every time he kicks a ball. There’s speculation that we may return for Tierney in the January transfer window, however. Seems like he’s crocked to me. Do we want/need another Wilshere?
Desperate for decent Premiership defenders & it’s being reported a loan deal for Couthino. Crazy season!