Arsenal face losing £8.2m star for nothing as British club 'begin' pre-contract talks

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Arsenal could be set to lose a current star for free with talks reportedly ongoing.

Arsenal face losing one of their current first team stars for nothing next summer, with talks already reportedly ongoing. The Gunners trimmed their squad significantly last summer, offloading the likes of Aaron Ramsdale and Eddie Nketiah, while players like Reiss Nelson and Albert Sambi Lokonga were loaned out, unlikely to return to Mikel Arteta’s plans.

One player who was not able to secure a move was Kieran Tierney, who returned from Euro 2024 with a serious hamstring injury after representing Scotland. The Scot missed much of the first half of the season but is now back fit, featuring on Arsenal’s bench for the most part.

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The Gunners would have liked to have offloaded Tierney in the summer, but in an interesting twist, they are now very glad they didn’t. Full-back injuries have piled up for Arteta this season, and while Tierney is not viewed as a starter, he may have an important role to play as a back-up.

That’s not to say he is in Arteta’s long-term plans, though, and it is likely the Scot will be allowed to leave in the summer when his current contract expires. No new deal is likely to be offered.

Tierney has already been heavily linked with a return to Celtic, where he spent four years as a senior player and 10 players as a youth player. According to Football Insider, Celtic want him back, with Brenan Rodgers keen to work with the left-back again, and Celtic are said to be working on agreeing a pre-contract agreement with Tierney ahead of January.

Due to his contract situation, the defender is able to agree a pre-contract agreement with any club outside England from January 1, and he already knows he won’t be getting a new deal at the Emirates Stadium. Though, it’s no secret that the once £25million signing will have to drop his wages to secure a return to Celtic. That’s something he will be expected to do to secure a move to pretty much any interested club, given his lack of football over the last year and his uneasy injury history.

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Rodgers on Tierney possibility

Celtic boss Rodgers was recently asked about the possibility of re-signing Tierney having spoken in glowing terms about the defender previously. he told BBC Sport: "On Tuesday I flew to Dublin to have a meeting with Dermot, just talking about January. We are always looking forward.

"We'll always be linked with top players and especially players that are one of us. Kieran was an instrumental part of a really, really successful period when I was here. His talents then took him to another challenge but we'll be linked with lots of names and with Kieran naturally because of his situation. But we'll only talk about a player once he's signed."

What Arteta has said

Arsenal boss Arteta was also asked about the Celtic interest recently, saying: "At the moment he's here with us. I wouldn't play a player that is thinking about leaving or is not committed to us. He's fully committed, he's enjoying things after a long period again with a really tough injury. Live the moment. He's a big part of the squad now. He deserves to be in the squad, he played really well the other day after such a long time. That's the only thing I can say."

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