MAGIC NUMBER
Arsenal set to meet Tierney’s £25m valuation
ARSENAL were last night moving closer to a £25million deal to sign Kieran Tierney from Celtic.
The Parkhead side secured a meeting with CFR Cluj of Romania in the third qualifying round of the Champions League after completing a 7-0 aggregate victory over Nomme Kalju in Estonia.
Ukrainian winger Marian Shved wrapped up a 2-0 win on the night in Tallinn, scoring his first goal for the club with a stoppagetime strike after an early own goal from the hosts removed any doubts.
Celtic now travel to Romania next Tuesday, by which time Sportsmail understands Tierney could finally be an Arsenal player at the third time of asking.
A record transfer deal for a Scottish player looked to have collapsed last week when the Londoners refused to increase their initial down payment and fell £5m short of Celtic’s demands.
After securing prospective £72m club-record signing Nicolas Pepe, however, Gunners boss
Unai Emery now wants a deal for Tierney signed and sealed despite concerns over the leftback’s pelvic issues following a double hernia operation. Even without Tierney, Celtic manager Neil Lennon has now seen his side score 12 goals in four Champions League qualifiers but insists the best has yet to come from his new-look side. Responding to suggestions his side are not as strong as they were, he said: ‘I can’t comment on what other people are saying about the team, but, so far, we’ve won 5-2 over Sarajevo and now 7-0. I don’t think the players can give me any more. ‘They’ve been absolutely excellent and I think there’s more to come from them. ‘We’re still not where we really want to be in terms of match fitness and match sharpness, but we’re in a good place and we look a threat — and that’s very pleasing. ‘I am very happy with the performance and with the scoreline over the two legs. ‘I am happy to get important minutes into the legs of some of the players who haven’t had that luxury so far. ‘We’re injury-free and the tie was always going to be a little bit different psychologically because of the lead we had. ‘We had very good control of the game and scoring the early goal was very important. ‘It set a good mentality and attitude and showed we were not just here to fulfil a fixture. ‘We are very pleased with the attitude and comprehensive performance we showed.’ New £7m defender Christopher Jullien was comfortable in his first start, while Lennon also praised the attacking impact of scoring substitute Shved. ‘Yeah, I’m very pleased for Christopher,’ added Lennon. ‘It was important he got 90 minutes because he’s not going to play at the weekend (against St Johnstone through suspension) and I was delighted with him. I thought he was outstanding. ‘And then Marian comes on. He’s had a little bit of a frustrating time with the groin injury, but again it was a good 25 minutes under his belt. ‘He scored a great goal to wrap up the tie. He’s only 21 and coming into a new culture. ‘I am pleased because that’ll give him a huge shot in the arm.’