Brendan Rodgers wouldn’t be drawn on specific Celtic links to Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney today but did say that the left-back will want to be playing football over the coming campaign.
As we discussed earlier, Tierney’s situation in London is far from certain after it became apparent he is not even currently training with Mikel Arteta’s first team. He’s been sidelined into a separate group of fringe players as a transfer exit looms.
Celtic have been linked with an audacious transfer move for him throughout the summer with reports indicating that both the Scotland international and the Bhoys are keen on a big reunion.
Asked whether a deal was possible, the Celtic boss said in a media conference today: “Listen, I would never speak about Kieran other than the time when I had him here. He’s an Arsenal player and that’s where he is at.”
However, the follow-up question centred on the defender’s desire to be playing football rather than sitting on the sidelines, to which Rodgers responded: “I think for Kieran himself, he’ll want to play. He’s not a young player anymore, he’s a player who will want to play football, no doubt. Especially where he was with Arsenal for his first couple of years and at times, captaining the club.
“They’ve got a really strong squad, Mikel has done a fantastic job. But for Kieran himself, I’m sure he’ll be looking to go out and play – that’s the way I would see it.”
Clearly, there are massive hurdles here. The financials of such a move for Tierney seem too big to overcome. But with Rodgers again refusing to completely rule it out, the speculation will rumble on in this final week of the transfer window.
The Celtic manager knows what motivates his former player and that could be a big advantage as the situation progresses.
There’s a long way to run on all this before we can say for certain where the Celtic hero will be plying his trade. The dreamers amongst us won’t rule anything out until it’s done!
In other news, Disappointing Hatate news as Rodgers provides Celtic return timelines for Oh, Kobayashi, Johnston.
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