Celtic’s Kieran Tierney must be raising an eyebrow at Arsenal

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The Arsenal interest in Kieran Tierney has cemented its place as the saga of the summer.

It’s had its rivals too. The Olivier Ntcham nonsense. The David Turnbull farce. But nothing has been more draining than the ding-dong interest Arsenal have in our man.

So far, Celtic have apparently set their stall out. The Hoops want £25million for him, and have been wanting that for weeks (Daily Mail). Instead, Arsenal seem to believe the asking price is just a recommendation. A £15m bid was booted out, only for a second offer to reportedly see another rejection last night (BBC).

The second bid was worth £25m, but it had a series of clauses and triggers according to the Daily Record. In other words, it was just another attempt from the Gunners to nab him on the cheap.

And, at this stage of the game, if you’re Tierney, you must now be asking serious questions of Arsenal’s desire to sign you. For a start, it took them a couple of weeks to come back in with a second offer. Goodness knows what took them. Probably trying to come up with new clauses that would only be met six months down the line.

Arsenal interest still not forcing a breakthrough

Secondly, Arsenal’s transfer budget has been widely reported. Unai Emery apparently has £45m to spend on players this summer (The Sun). The Gunners then decided to try and splash £40m of it on Wilfried Zaha (BBC). If they sign Zaha, or another player for anywhere near that, Arsenal likely won’t have the money for Tierney.

Therefore, if they’re bidding those sums for others, it must make Tierney question how much he’s truly wanted. If Arsenal come back in with a third offer, you would still question as to whether they would give Celtic the £25m they’re after.

It’s starting to come across as though Tierney is being viewed as a luxury signing for Arsenal. Sure, they need a left-back, but there’s not a lot of urgency in their pursuit of our man. If there was, we all know they could give us what we want without much of a fuss. But the London outfit are simply refusing to do that so far.

With a bit of luck, their handling of the Tierney saga will hopefully make our man think twice about heading down to North London. Arsenal have the money for him, but they must have question marks about splashing out for him. If you’re Tierney, that can’t make you feel too loved.

With a bit of luck, this is how our left-back feels. KT has been tight-lipped on the speculation, however. Therefore, nobody outside of him will know what’s running through his mind.