Arsenal have increased their interest in Celtic defender Kieran Tierney, according to the Daily Mail’s John McGarry. The left-back is high on the London side’s shortlist this summer.
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Arsenal’s Spanish boss Unai Emery has identified the 22-year-old as his top left-back target. Emery is hopeful of improving his squad after a fifth-place finish.
Emery will be forced to remain competitive with Manchester City and Liverpool on a comparatively minor budget after missing out on Champions League football.
However, the Spaniard would be forced to make a multi-million-pound offer for the full-back – Tierney is contracted to Celtic until 2023. A fee around, or in excess of, £20 million is the ballpark figure.
Emery hopes to strengthen various elements of his squad; meanwhile, Arsenal are open to offloading Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to open up transfer funds.
The Daily Mail claim that Emery sees Tierney as a “shrewd investment” with a bid expected to be tabled in the coming days.
Tierney had previously insisted that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Billy McNeil and Paul McStay – two folk greats of Celtic.
However, the defender may look to emulate the success of Andy Robertson at Liverpool. As a result, the opportunity to play in the Premier League too good to turn down.
The Scottish champions were drawn against Bosnian league winners FK Sarajevo in the first qualifying round of the Champions League on Tuesday.
Reacting to the draw, Tierney told the Daily Mail: “It’s such a short break, so we’re not coming back unfit.”
“We’ll lose a bit but we’re still coming back in good shape and good condition. We’ll be ready for the challenges ahead.”
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