Gunner89 wrote:

As reported elsewhere Arsenal have had an opening bid of £15m for Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney rejected - but there is optimism an agreement will be reached between the clubs, while personal terms for the 22-year-old Scotland international shouldn’t be a problem #AFC #CelticFC

Ornstein has spoken

Great news. I was convinced there was substance to the rumours.

Here comes the YouTube vid:

Don Pacifico wrote:

Do wonder who we're going to be selling this summer - I'd assume we've got at least two more players to sign in this window and at these rates we're going to have to sell one or two. Must be confident that we can offload them, so wonder who they are...

Kolasinac surely has to be on his way if this is happening. We've taken up the option of an extra year with Monreal, although that is still yet to be officially confirmed. The Spaniard covers two positions; his legs are gone, but if we could get 40+ games out of Tierney, Monreal will just about be enough.

We can't have Kolasinac as our back-up left back on £100k+ a week. On top of that, he can only really play left wingback to a good standard, and he's 26 years old; not the time in a career to be sitting on the bench.

I also wonder if Emery has in mind Bukayo Saka as a squad option at left back/wingback? He has played there for a bit for the youth sides and played the whole tournament there for the England U17s in their run to the semi-final of the European Championships last summer.

Absolutely sell Kolasinac and take the risk of promoting of Saka. kola plays only one position, which is fullback in the back 3, which Iimits us severely.
God, we really wasted January. Too much to do on this team

This looks like a really smart buy and hopefully will enable us to play 4 at the back more often than not.

How long until Bellerin is back? We need him ready if we want to play a back four because if Kola is only suited to wing back then AMN is most definitely too

Bellers is scheduled for a september/october comeback

Orstein talking about it means things are pretty advanced. 20m plus add-ons sounds fair

There are more pivotal positions to be filled, but given how much the coach plays through fullbacks, getting a quality one on the books is perhaps more important than one would initially think

This guy is class.

jones wrote:

How long until Bellerin is back? We need him ready if we want to play a back four because if Kola is only suited to wing back then AMN is most definitely too

You can get away with one. I think the issue last season was we had one of each side along with suspect centre backs.

Good we are looking to improve on that position. Monreal unfortunately is getting on and Kola is terrible defensively and very hit and miss in attack.

I've seen a few Celtic fans who seem to think we are confident a deal can be done between £18m-£20m price. Their fans do think very highly of him, I've not seen much of him. Know we've been linked to him and Jamal Lewis as backup if this fails.

Klaus wrote:

Agree that pricing isn't linear (and Scottish players count as homegrown too, which is useful), but Jones has a big point about our budget. I'd happily pay £25 million for any outstanding fullback talent if we weren't so skint right now. Hopefully we can turn it into £15-20 million up front, with an additional couple of million in addons once he makes 30 appearances or something. Throw in a bonus for when he makes his first Champions League appearance too.

Either our budget is higher than being reported or we are anticipating some sales this summer as well.

Gazza M wrote:

Bellers is scheduled for a september/october comeback

If he's back around then it will probably be the new year before he's fully match fit and up to scratch again.

Ornstein confirmed it making me so excited. Out of everyone that is linked I'm most excited about this, have been wishlisting him for the longest time ever. Bloke is utter class and will surprise many when they see him here.

JazzG wrote:

Either our budget is higher than being reported or we are anticipating some sales this summer as well.

I think we're moving some people on for sure. Chambers, Mustafi and Elneny all seem likely to get sold; we should be able to get around £40 million there. We have freed up some wages by having Ramsey, Welbeck, Cech and Lichtsteiner depart too. That's 300K per week sliced right off the wage bill. Add another £50K whenever we find someone to give away Jenkinson to.

He missed 20+ games through injury last season though. Should we be concerned about that?

Really hope we sign him.

As mentioned by others he has good technique and awareness. Our team needs a few determined players and hopefully his attitude will be infectious and gee up some of our cruisers

JazzG wrote:

Good we are looking to improve on that position. Monreal unfortunately is getting on and Kola is terrible defensively and very hit and miss in attack.

I've seen a few Celtic fans who seem to think we are confident a deal can be done between £18m-£20m price. Their fans do think very highly of him, I've not seen much of him. Know we've been linked to him and Jamal Lewis as backup if this fails.

Klaus wrote:

Agree that pricing isn't linear (and Scottish players count as homegrown too, which is useful), but Jones has a big point about our budget. I'd happily pay £25 million for any outstanding fullback talent if we weren't so skint right now. Hopefully we can turn it into £15-20 million up front, with an additional couple of million in addons once he makes 30 appearances or something. Throw in a bonus for when he makes his first Champions League appearance too.

Either our budget is higher than being reported or we are anticipating some sales this summer as well.

If we sell high wage Kolasinac, it should cover this purchase as we won't be paying Tierney anywhere near as much.

Gazza M wrote:

He missed 20+ games through injury last season though. Should we be concerned about that?

Ricky said something about it being a double hernia?

Was reading the social media and haven't seen this level of excitement for a player linked with us for quite a few windows now and it's funny we are all excited for a LB. Apparently Celtic wants in excess of 30m.


Stats is good as well

He’s very athletic and combines that with a good understanding of when and when not to press and attack spaces. We’re well over due some elite physicality - it’s a big part of the reason we’ve fallen as far behind as we have

Clrnc wrote:

Was reading the social media and haven't seen this level of excitement for a player linked with us for quite a few windows now and it's funny we are all excited for a LB. Apparently Celtic wants in excess of 30m.


Stats is good as well

Obviously he's playing Sunday league football, but here's the stats compared to Kolasinac's for what it's worth:

Wait. Kolasinac is 25??

Just checked his wiki page, and he just turned 26. Why does he move like he is 32? Needs to trim up and improve his agility.

That's some ridiculous difference.

I don't buy that sunday league theory though, he looked good in UCL as well. Robertson moved from Scotland without any problems too.

What theory? That good players do well in good leagues as well as bad ones doesn't make the league any better, does it?

I think Clrnc meant that Tierney isn't just impressive because he plays in Scotland because he looked equally good in Champions League.

The comparison is still a bad one, Kola plays wing back completely different role to full back. Not only is he expected to do more in attack hes also on his own on the wing while Tierney has a winger in front of him. Didn't someone post a stat bomb comparison like that for Mustafi and Van Dijk just recently where Mustafi came out looking better?

Tierney “arcch hae I’m gud wae the footba wae both feet aii. ‘n I can power down the flank”

Kolasinac “Hold my chocolate bar”

Anybody that saw Kola absolutely waste 3 outstanding chances to score in the europa final should be glad.

Kola is a player who has slow acceleration but decent pace. He's good at going past players when he gets a bit of space to change gears.

Beyond that he's a terrible crosser who routinely hits the defender and is suspect defensively.

We should still get 20m for him though.

Klaus wrote:

I think Clrnc meant that Tierney isn't just impressive because he plays in Scotland because he looked equally good in Champions League.

I don't think anyone's presented that theory. I just think you should consider what league they play in when comparing stats, that's got nothing to do with players adapting to the PL.

Regarding what Jones said, I guess it would be fair if they did a comparison with the wing back template as well. It doesn't seem like that functionality is publicly available though.

The Times reporting a second bid has been turned down, figure is suppose to be around the £20m mark and Celtic still holding out for £25m.

JazzG wrote:

The Times reporting a second bid has been turned down, figure is suppose to be around the £20m mark and Celtic still holding out for £25m.

We are being shaken down by a Championship equivalent club. They need to get serious.

Grates how cash strapped we are. All due to years of mismanagement

Celtic think they can play hardball after begging us to bid in the press? 😆

First bid of £15m from us, they want £25m, we should hopefully come away with the player for £20m. This latest bid was reportedly £18m + add-ons.

I don't believe Everton are interested personally.

We are in control. Celtic have a Champions League qualifier in 2 weeks, no other clubs that can threaten us need a left back: There's no way we should be paying the asking price.

i expect this to get done. i can see £20m + add-ons based on team success, so, £20m

How are Everton and West Ham out spending us ? And signing quality players too.

Everton have rich owners. Maybe they put in a request for additional owner financing last December, and they are exercising it now. This would’ve been the ideal time for us to do the same but I suspect our owner is too stretched with his LA project

The link above regarding Tierney to Everton is a year old.

Some of you should at least check the link before posting.

Transfer Police has spoken and you are right about spurs but i was talking about last season when discussing Everton so the year old link is deliberate.

ah we are going to blow this I feel. 10 million off the evaluation in the initial bid; now everyone else alerted and to come in and swoop. I