Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney was a big talking point for Celtic during the January transfer window.
It has been well-documented that Tierney will return to Celtic in the summer, several years after he left his boyhood club and joined Arsenal in 2019.
Celtic’s left-back spot has caused a bit of a stir this season, with Greg Taylor dividing opinion amongst the fans and with his contract expiring in the summer.
Things were made even more interesting during the January transfer window when Celtic cut short Alex Valle’s loan spell from Barcelona and he joined Cesc Fabregas at FC Como.
It left the champions short on that left-hand side, with many wondering and hoping that Tierney’s return could be fast-tracked.
But, that hasn’t been the case, with versatile Crystal Palace star Jeffrey Schlupp joining on deadline day and coming in to cover at left-back until the summer.
So, how close were Celtic to bringing back Tierney as early as January?
Brendan Rodgers says Kieran Tierney’s January return to Celtic was down to Arsenal
Tierney’s contract at the Emirates expires in the summer and the Scotsman has a pre-contract agreement in place with his boyhood club.
But fans wanted Tierney to return now because they could make better use of a player sitting on Arsenal’s bench.
Despite those wishes from the Celtic fans, Rodgers has shared that ‘it wasn’t close’ and it had ‘nothing to do with Celtic’ because all of this was on ‘Arsenal’s terms’, as he told Sky Sports News (04/02/25 at 4:25 pm).
“It wasn’t close,” admitted Rodgers about Tierney joining before the summer. “It was clear, Kieran for the summer. If that was the possibility (Tierney joining in January), then it was on Arsenal’s terms. Nothing to do with Celtic. If it were to happen, then great.
“But clearly, he was a part of their squad and he will be here in the summer.
Tierney’s game time for Arsenal this season
The crazy thing is that Tierney would have been more useful for Celtic during these next few months than Arsenal themselves, especially with those two games against Bayern Munich coming up.
As many saw at the weekend, Arsenal beat Manchester City 5-1 in the Premier League, with youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly scoring and now making that left-back spot his own.
Added to that, you have the likes of summer signing Riccardo Calafiori, amongst others, playing ahead of Tierney and it has resulted in him, on many occasions, not even coming off the bench.
So, it is rather frustrating that Tierney wasn’t brought in earlier, especially given the mess Celtic made of the January transfer window.
