Arsenal may have a problem in the summer transfer window when it comes to deciding the future of out-of-favor Kieran Tierney. The left-back (25) who has 3 years left on his contract certainly adds quality and competition to a squad flourishing under Mikel Arteta at the moment. However, with 33 games played in the league, Tierney has featured just 22 times with 17 of those appearances coming from the bench. Following the arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko in the summer, Tierney’s game time has diminished and he has struggled to find a regular spot in Arteta’s side. Getting just 606 minutes of game time in the Premier League this season. Additionally, he has a history of injuries and with rumors circulating that other clubs are interested in his services the Arsenal hierarchy may see this as the perfect opportunity to get maximum value for their man and correct past mistakes as they move on to the next phase of the rebuild.
Read more: What Arsenal need to address in the transfer window! https://flyinghighbury.com/2023/05/what-arsenal-need-to-address-in-the-transfer-window/
Although Tierney was brought in during the Emery era he remained a staple in Arteta’s team and was part of the Arsenal side which won the 2020 FA Cup and Community Shield. When fit, up until this season he was regarded as the number one left-back at the club and is considered by many as one of the best left-backs in the league. Often in the past putting in standout performances in an underperforming Arsenal side winning over fans with his hard work and leadership abilities with portions of the fanbase calling for him to be the next club captain. However, as Arteta and Edu have been given time to build their project with mass incomings and outgoings over the last few transfer windows it’s becoming clearer that Tierney is not necessarily a natural fit for how Arteta wants the team to play long-term and he seems to value the attributes and versatility of Zinchenko more, such as his ability on the ball, technical ability, composure, ability to play out from the back and being able to drift into the midfield when needed. Whereas Tierney is more of a traditional type of left-back defensively solid, offers a lot of pace out wide and puts a lot of crosses into the box. However, unlike Zinchenko he isn’t a natural at the inverted left-back role a position Arteta has wanted to implement this season.
There is no doubt that at times throughout his Arsenal career Kieran Tierney when fit has put in big performances for the club and proven that he can compete against the very best. However, his injury record has been a big concern during his time at the club missing a total of 48 games through injury since he joined the club in 2019. With it now looking increasingly likely that Arsenal will be playing Champions League football next season the fixture list is going to become increasingly demanding on the squad and having an injury-prone player in the squad is a concern. On top of this Arteta has shown a reluctance to use Tierney in games. The most recent example was against Liverpool. Zinchenko was exhausted and needed to come off much sooner than he did but Arteta seemed reluctant to introduce Tierney. By the time he came on for the dying embers of the game Liverpool had already equalized. This to me feels like Arteta doesn’t feel comfortable using Tierney and I can’t help but feel that if we had an Arteta signing on the bench that change may have come a bit quicker. We can’t have this hesitancy in a Champions League season it’ll be so much unneeded pressure on Zinchenko and could potentially start to cost us as the season goes on.
Over the last few transfer windows, the incoming transfers at Arsenal have drastically improved. A clear plan has been put in place Arteta and Edu have been working as a unit and appear to have multiple plans in place to land the types of players we need and the Kroenke’s appear to be fully behind the project and provided adequate backing. However, something we must improve on is our player sales and knowing when to let go of players. This is something Arsenal have been very poor with in the past. According to https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk Kieran Tierney was bought by the club for a fee of around €27m and currently has a value of around €25m. Although these numbers won’t be 100% accurate they give a bit of an indication of Tierney’s value in the current market and indicate that if we were to sell now we would probably break even on what we paid for him or potentially make a small profit.
So should Arsenal sell Kieran Tierney in the summer transfer window? In terms of his overall ability and mentality, I believe Tierney is more than good enough to provide healthy competition and challenge for a regular spot at left-back and keep driving the team forward to be the best that it can be. He would improve nearly every other Premier League side if he were to join them. I also think he offers something different to Zinchenko and its good to have versatility in the side. Having said that, if his style of play doesn’t suit the project Arteta and Edu are building long-term and Arteta doesn’t fancy him for the left-back position anymore. Arsenal should strongly consider selling him in the summer to get maximum value for him. If the Gooners hold onto him and he plays the same amount of games he has this season or less, his value starts to decline and it becomes much harder to command a top fee for him and the board could see ourselves falling into the same trap we have for several years of not knowing when to offload players. This is an area I feel Arsenal must improve in if they expect to sustain title challenges in the future.
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